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Remote Work, Affordability Driving the Hottest Markets for Real Estate
As more professionals have been able to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re fundamentally changing the real estate landscape. Smaller, cheaper parts of the country have edged out the bigger, pricier cities to become the nation’s hottest housing markets as those who can work from anywhere are chasing affordability.
In August, Burlington, NC, where buyers can snag lower-priced homes, reclaimed the No. 1 position on the Realtor.com® monthly hottest markets list. The last time the metro, which lies conveniently between Winston-Salem and Raleigh, snagged the top spot was in November.
“With home prices near record highs and still growing, buyers are looking for homes in communities with solid local economies which offer good jobs,” says George Ratiu, manager of economic research at Realtor.com. “At the same time, buyers also want larger homes, better quality of life in their communities, and access to the outdoors.
“The most in-demand real estate markets in August highlight the appeal of small and midsized cities across the country, amid continued interest in remote work and rising affordability concerns,” adds Ratiu.
The Realtor.com economics team came up with its ranking of the hottest U.S. markets for real estate by tracking the metropolitan areas where homes are selling the quickest and where the most potential buyers are clicking on property listings on Realtor.com. (Metros include the main city and surrounding suburbs, towns, and smaller urban areas.)
With record-high prices that keep rising, affordability is clearly on the mind of buyers. The average median home list price in the 20 hottest markets, spread out across 17 states, was just $299,000 in August, according to Realtor.com data. That was 21.4% lower than the national median price tag of $380,000.
In the hottest market of Burlington—which has plenty of science, tech, and engineering jobs as well as lots of distribution centers—the median price was even lower, at $290,000 in August. That’s about 31% less than the national median, and it’s also significantly cheaper than in Raleigh, where homes come with a median price tag of $424,700.
For just under $190,000, Burlington buyers can score a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, single-family home built 20 to 30 years ago on a quarter- to a half-acre of land, says local real estate broker Vivian Sweatt, of Sweatt Realty. There’s just one catch: Buyers must have their bid accepted—no easy feat in today’s pandemic-fueled market.
During the summer, homes were receiving about a dozen offers and going for 6% to 12% over the ask price, says Sweatt.
The market is also a fan favorite. Homes for sale in the metro received 2.5 times more page views per property than they did elsewhere. About half of the homes sold in fewer than 18 days in August—about 21 days faster than in the rest of the country.
“We have a housing shortage,” says Sweatt, who bemoaned new construction not going up fast enough to provide some relief. “We have transplants coming in. We’re producing all these jobs and building all these schools, and we have no housing for them.”
The market may be cooling a little, though. In the past few weeks Sweatt is seeing homes stay on the market a few days longer, sell for a little less over the ask price, and have about half as many buyers—if not fewer—duking it out in bidding wars.
The hot list
Metro | Rank | Rank Change YoY | Median Listing Price |
Burlington, NC | 1 | +17 | $290,000 |
Manchester, NH | 2 | -1 | $405,000 |
Jefferson City, MO | 3 | +93 | $199,000 |
Johnson City, TN | 4 | +28 | $300,000 |
Rochester, NY | 5 | -1 | $228,000 |
Fort Wayne, IN | 6 | +6 | $245,000 |
Elkhart, IN | 7 | +10 | $222,000 |
Eureka, CA | 8 | +14 | $430,000 |
Raleigh, NC | 9 | +90 | $425,000 |
Rapid City, SD | 10 | +101 | $372,000 |
Portland, ME | 11 | +36 | $470,000 |
Topeka, KS | 12 | -10 | $177,000 |
Waco, TX | 13 | +69 | $280,000 |
Saginaw, MI | 14 | -4 | $155,000 |
Janesville, WI | 15 | +9 | $225,000 |
Worcester, MA | 16 | +10 | $408,000 |
Columbus, OH | 17 | -9 | $300,000 |
Pottsville, PA | 18 | +28 | $110,000 |
La Crosse, WI | 19 | +61 | $285,000 |
Billings, MT | 20 | +25 | $449,000 |