The 10 Hottest Housing Markets in 2024, According to Zillow Predictions

What do the Midwest, the Great Lakes region and the South have in common?

They’re all home to cities that a new real estate analysis predicts will have the hottest housing markets of 2024. As homebuyers enter another year of affordability challenges, Zillow expects the 10 metropolitan areas in its ranking to attract activity for their stable local economies and home values, among other factors.

New-year housing market expectations

Low inventory, record-breaking home prices and elevated mortgage rates have sidelined many homebuyers over the last few years. They’re expected to finally cool in 2024 — and prices could even see significant slowdowns in some fast-growing markets — but Zillow says these challenges probably won’t disappear entirely.

Naturally, this year’s homebuyers are going to flock to places where hurdles that have thwarted many before aren’t as prevalent. Most of the metros that made the ranking are located in the Midwest, Great Lakes and South, with Providence, Rhode Island, being the only East-Coast outlier.

The cities on Zillow’s list offer strong local job markets, and growth in home values is expected to be relatively stable. Buffalo, New York, tops the list not only for the expected steadiness of its home prices but also for its recent increases in the number of new jobs relative to the number of approved new home construction projects.

Still, part of what will make markets in the cities listed so hot is an outsize demand relative to the number of homes for sale. Cincinnati ranks second thanks to the lickety-split speed of its home sales last year: Zillow says that for-sale homes there went pending in a median of five to six days for most of 2023.

10 hottest markets of 2024

Zillow's analysis is based on forecasted home value growth, recent housing market activity and projected labor market changes, home construction activity and existing homeownership.

The following cities are expected to have the hottest housing markets this year:

1. Buffalo, New York
2. Cincinnati, Ohio
3. Columbus, Ohio
4. Indianapolis, Indiana
5. Providence, Rhode Island
6. Atlanta, Georgia (named Money's Best Place to Live for 2022-2023)
7. Charlotte, North Carolina
8. Cleveland, Ohio
9. Orlando, Florida
10. Tampa, Florida

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