Despite ongoing challenges of low inventory and relatively high mortgage rates—conditions that should ease somewhat during 2024—Zillow has identified the 10 housing markets it anticipates will be strongest this year. Those markets are concentrated in the Midwest, Great Lakes, and South, with Buffalo, N.Y., Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, and Providence, R.I., taking the top five spots on this year's list of the 10 hottest housing markets.
To generate the list, Zillow analyzed home-value growth forecasts and recent housing market velocity, as well as projected changes in home construction activity, the number of homeowner households, and the labor market.
Vaulting Buffalo to the top of the list are recent increases in the number of jobs created compared to the number of new homes construction projects being approved, as well as expectations for steady home values. Meanwhile, Cincinnati’s second-place rank can be chalked up to its high market velocity – for most months of 2023, homes that went pending in Cincinnati did so in a median of just five or six days.