2025's hottest housing markets
Realtor.com has revealed its Top Housing Markets for 2025, showcasing areas that appear primed for growth in the year ahead. This year's list highlights markets characterized by moderately affordable homes, abundant inventory (mainly boosted by new construction) and a sizable base of younger families – many with military and international connections.
The top 10 markets for 2025 are exclusively in the South and West. In order, they are: 1) Colorado Springs, Colo.; 2) Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla.; 3) Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.-N.C.; 4) El Paso, Texas; 5) Richmond, Va.; 6) Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.; 7) McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas; 8) Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Ariz.; 9) Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, Ga.; 10) Greensboro-High Point, N.C. Learn more below.
"While nationwide home sales are expected to see a slight uptick this year, driven by a cooling in home price growth, the top markets we've identified are poised for stronger sales and price gains in 2025," said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. "With mortgage rates likely to ease only modestly next year, these markets—offering relatively lower-priced homes, more new and existing houses to choose from, and mortgage products designed to give buyers a leg up—could provide some would-be buyers a better chance at entering the market next year."
South and West dominate top 10 list
This year's top 10 are all located in the South and West, with multiple markets from three states – Texas, Florida and Virginia. While these areas generally offer lower home prices than the national average, incomes tend to be lower as well.
As a result, housing affordability remains a challenge, with buyers spending about 31.1 percent of their income on housing—higher than the national average of 29.2 percent.
However, seven of the top 10 markets offer a more affordable cost of living compared to the U.S. average, with McAllen, Texas, leading as the most affordable, with living costs 13 percent below the national average. Miami stands out as the least affordable, with housing costs consuming 42.1 percent of income and a cost of living 11.5 percent above the U.S. average.
Along with slightly lower overall living costs, buyers in many of these markets may also benefit from flexible work arrangements. Realtor.com research found many shoppers use flexible work options to navigate affordability challenges – a trend expected to continue. Half of the top markets, including Richmond, Va. (11.8 percent), Atlanta (10.8 percent), Phoenix (10.6 percent), Colorado Springs, Colo. (8.9 percent), and Orlando, Fla. (8.8 percent), report higher shares of remote or hybrid job postings in 2024 than the average across the top 100 metros (8.6 percent), according to WFH Data.
Both new and existing inventory up in top markets
While inventory remains a challenge nationwide, a recovery is underway, with the number of homes for sale in November notching the highest mark since December 2019.
Despite those gains, the market still trails the November 2017–2019 average by 20 percent, with notable regional variation: the South and West are far closer to pre-pandemic levels than the Midwest and Northeast. Among the top 10 metros, eight have seen year-over-year growth in single-family home construction, with builders increasingly focusing on more affordable and smaller homes to meet demand. But new home construction is only part of the story – despite increased construction, new home listings have declined as a share of the market in eight of the top 10 markets as more existing homeowners return to selling and add to the uptick in homes for sale.
Top markets have younger, more diverse buyers with strong military, international ties
The top 10 markets for 2025 are distinguished by their dynamic and diverse communities. Younger households are notably more common, with all but Miami having an above-average share of residents under age 35. These markets also have higher rates of families with children, with 28.8 percent of households including children compared to the national average of 26.5 percent.
Military connections are another defining characteristic—more than 1 in 7 households in the top markets are active-duty or veteran, exceeding the average of 1 in 8 across the 100 largest metros. Additionally, these communities have strong international ties, with 17.6 percent of residents being foreign-born, compared to an average of 13 percent in the largest metros. Miami leads with 42.7 percent foreign-born residents, and is joined by other Florida and Texas markets, which also have shares above 20 percent.
Government mortgages create opportunity in top markets
Lastly, given the prevalence of younger households and strong military connections, it's no surprise that government-backed lending options like VA, FHA, and USDA mortgages play a key role and are more prevalent among buyers in top markets, helping more households achieve homeownership with lower down payments and fueling the expected sales and price growth in 2025.
More than half of recent mortgages were government loans in Colorado Springs, Colo., El Paso, Texas, and Virginia Beach, Va. because of high VA-loan usage. Almost three in four mortgage loans were government loans in El Paso, with 29.3 percent VA loans and 41 percent FHA loans. Combined with moderate price points in the top markets, these programs are helping make homeownership accessible to more families.
View Realtor.com's top 100 housing markets for 2025 here.
