Realtor.com has published its report on the 20 hottest real estate markets in the United States for February 2018. That might seem like a long time ago from April, but since the March numbers aren’t out yet, these are great indication of the state of the national market. Here they are:
- San Francisco, CA
- Midland, TX
- Vallejo, CA
- San Jose, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Denver, CO
- Santa Rosa, CA
- Colorado Springs, CO
- San Diego, CA
- Stockton, CA
- Santa Cruz, CA
- Dallas, TX
- Chico, CA
- Oxnard, CA
- Modesto, CA
- Columbus, OH
- Fresno, CA
- Spokane, WA
- Fort Wayne, IN
- Los Angeles, CA
What to Make of the Numbers:
- Prices are high! Listing prices always climb in spring as demand increases, but prices this year have already hit last summer’s peak median price of $275,000. This is also a 10% increase in price over this time last year.
- San Francisco’s top place on the list is no surprise, but the number two spot of Midland, TX, is a bit unexpected.
- At a 13-spot increase, Spokane, WA, made the biggest jump in rank compared to January, 2018. Fort Wayne, IN, comes in second with a nine-spot difference. Spokane’s popularity has been growing in recent years as buyers leave Seattle because of its high prices.
- All these markets suffer from the nation-wide housing shortage, which partly explains the high prices and high demand. Inventory has increased 2% from January, but even with this increase inventory is down 8% from this time last year.