It’s Hot to Live in a Small City - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

It’s Hot to Live in a Small City

Some of the hottest housing markets in the country aren’t your flashy coastal areas, but instead are much more modest in size and budget. For the sixth consecutive month, Fort Wayne, Ind., was the top metro on realtor.com®’s rankings of the hottest housing markets, reflecting December data. The rankings are based on where homes are selling the fastest and which metros are fetching the most views on realtor.com®.

“I'm not shocked,” Beth Walker, a real estate broker at Fairfield Group, REALTORS®, in Fort Wayne, told realtor.com® about the rankings. "We continue to lead the pack as one of the most affordable places to live in the country."

Half of December’s top 20 markets ranked by realtor.com® don’t make it into the nation’s top 100 largest metros, researchers point out. Seven are in the Midwest, an area of the country long known as being more affordable than other parts of the country.

California once dominated realtor.com®’s hottest market list for years. The state still has the most markets on the top 20 list compared to any other state, but the places are more of their midsize metros like Modesto, Vallejo, Fresno, Stockton, Yuba City, and Bakersfield, researchers note.

Hottest Markets - October 2019

Source: “Bigger Isn’t Better for the Hottest Markets in U.S. Real Estate,” realtor.com® (Jan. 7, 2020)

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