The Country’s Hottest Housing Markets Are Small Cities

Who would have guessed, say, 5 years ago, that in 2021 the hottest home market in the US would be Coeur d’Alene, Idaho? That city and 49 others formed the WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index, released this week. (Austin, the poster-child of growth, came in second.)

Looking at the list — which includes places like Springfield, Ohio; Reno, Nevada; Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California; and Madison, Wisconsin — there doesn’t seem to be a clear connection between them. But the one thing that many of the listed cities have in common is a small population size. Most of the cities have populations around 50,000 people.

In cities this small, the lack of inventory and a few high-priced sales can really throw things out of whack. Otherwise, how would Trenton, N.J. be considered a desirable housing market? But in aggregate, the list shows the pent-up demand for living in smaller cities.

It’s unclear how much of this desire for small-city living is the pandemic’s fault, or remote work, but smaller cities are definitely making a comeback as people abandon pricier, large cities like New York, San Francisco, and Boson.

At ?WSIM we are working to improve our quiz to provide more results that lead quiz-takers to small cities.