The Most Profitable U.S. Housing Markets

A recent study by Realtor.com found the U.S. cities with the highest long-term home sale profits.

According to the study, the median annual return on home sales was 8 percent nationally over the last 12 months, but it varied widely—between 2 and 14 percent—across the country’s top 100 metro areas. The type of city with the highest profits was greatly varied as well.

Many of the places with the highest returns are the nation's fastest-growing cities, where highly paid techies are spurring bidding wars. But that isn't always the case. A few of the places where home sellers walked away with the fattest profits are those that hit rock-bottom in the Great Recession. Savvy buyers who got in on the ground floor have seen their home appreciation soar.

Realtor.com found that the metro area with the highest return was Bridgeport, Conn., a modest suburb of New York City, at a 14 percent annualized average return. Bridgeport was followed by Detroit, Seattle, and San Jose, Calif.

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