Top 10 Hottest Neighborhoods for 2020

A majority of Redfin’s hottest neighborhoods for 2020 have a common theme, and it’s not that they’re conventionally trendy or close to traditionally popular cities. The common thread is affordability. This makes sense, considering the rising cost of homes and the affordable housing shortage. But in order to find these homes, potential buyers are increasingly looking southeast, where they can find houses for less than $500,000: Bal Harbour, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, secured the second spot on Redfin's list, and its median home sells for a steal at $270,000. This focus on affordability underscores the importance of building reasonably priced, entry-level housing if builders want to appeal to a large demographic of homebuyers. Based on year-over-year growth, these are the top 10 neighborhoods to put on your watch list for 2020.

Americans are searching for affordable homes and they’re increasingly looking to the southeast to find them. The majority of Redfin’s hottest neighborhoods to watch in 2020 have median home sale prices of less than $500,000, and half are in the southeast states of Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

The 2020 watch list was developed by identifying the neighborhoods with the greatest year-over-year growth in listing pageviews on Redfin.com and speaking with agents about what areas are seeing rising interest from homebuyers. Some of the neighborhoods included may not meet the conventional definition of “hot,” but are still trending among homebuyers.

Relatively affordable neighborhoods dominate this year’s list. Seven of the top 10 neighborhoods to watch in 2020 have median sale prices of less than $500,000; three fall below the 2019 national median of $279,900, making them “affordable” compared to other parts of the country. Half of the neighborhoods also have median sale prices that are less than their respective metro areas.

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