Consumers seeking lower housing prices are looking farther from central metro areas. View realtor.com®’s list of the hottest housing markets.
The “spillover market” is becoming a trend for home shoppers. These markets are close to large metros but can offer lower home prices. They’re dominating realtor.com®’s rankings of the hottest housing markets so far in 2021.
For example, Stockton, Calif., topped realtor.com®’s rankings in January. The city has a population of about 310,000 and is 72 miles east of San Francisco’s East Bay area. Half of all homes in Stockton and nearby Lodi sold in fewer than 37 days in January, 22 days faster than a year earlier. Prices there are significantly lower than in San Francisco—the median listing price in Stockton is $480,000, compared with San Francisco’s near $1 million. Vallejo, just north of San Francisco, and Sacramento, Calif., are two other spillover markets seeing housing demand surge, realtor.com® notes.
Realtor.com® identified the following hottest U.S. housing markets—those seeing the fastest sales and highest number of online views—in January:
1. Stockton, Calif.
- Median days on the market: 37
- Median listing price: $480,000
2. Rapid City, S.D.
- Median days on the market: 22
- Median listing price: $240,000
3. Burlington, N.C.
- Median days on the market: 40
- Median listing price: $296,000
4. Vallejo, Calif.
- Median days on the market: 27
- Median listing price: $525,000
5. Fort Wayne, Ind.
- Median days on the market: 42
- Median listing price: $225,000
6. Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Median days on the market: 46
- Median listing price: $532,000
7. Lafayette, Ind.
- Median days on the market: 50
- Median listing price: $275,000
8. Reno, Nev.
- Median days on the market: 46
- Median listing price: $637,000
9. Spokane, Wash.
- Median days on the market: 44
- Median listing price: $399,000
10. Sacramento, Calif.
- Median days on the market: 36
- Median listing price: $599,000
11. Topeka, Kan.
- Median days on the market: 42
- Median listing price: $146,000
12. Concord, N.H.
- Median days on the market: 53
- Median listing price: $355,000
Source: “The Hottest Cities in Real Estate Right Now Are ‘Spillover Markets’—Where Are they?”realtor.com® (Feb. 25, 2021) and “January 2021 Hottest Housing Markets,” realtor.com®