Dallas, Jacksonville Among Best Markets For Buyers To Make An Investment

Homebuyers looking to make a shrewd purchase should head to Texas or Florida.

Through data from Local Market Monitor, Forbes analyzed 300 housing markets and found the 20 best cities where buyers can capitalize on an undervalued property. Local Market Monitor projects that home prices in each city on the list will grow by at least 17 percent by 2020.

Dallas ranked first. The average home price is currently $233,000, but Local Market Monitor predicts that prices will rise 31 percent over the next three years due to the city’s strong job growth and population growth. Other Texas metros on the list include Fort Worth (No. 9) and San Antonio (No. 20).

Florida had Jacksonville (No. 2), Orlando (No. 3), West Palm Beach (No. 5), and Tampa-St. Petersburg (No. 7) land in the top 10. Each market can expect 25 percent price growth or better by 2020.

Other warm-weather cities dominate the list. Nashville, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Phoenix all have average home prices under $250,000 and are predicted to have strong price growth over the next few years. A few expensive markets, such as San Diego and Seattle, made the cut as well. While Seattle’s average home price, at $416,000, is already nearly $150,000 above the U.S. average, the city is expected to see a 26 percent rise in sales prices by 2020.

Absent from this list are the major California markets San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as East Coast megacities New York and Washington D.C. Scarcity has made these places too expensive to be top investments.

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