Once again, Denver is at the top of the list of the hottest housing markets overall based on December 2023 data from the U.S. News Housing Market Index (HMI). The index ranks metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) on a scale of 1-100, with 100 indicating that a housing market is blazing hot. On the list of the hottest markets overall, Denver is followed by Raleigh, N.C., Virginia Beach, Va., Durham, N.C., and Charlotte, N.C., in descending order from second to fifth place, respectively.
The analysis by U.S. News & World Report includes rankings based on housing demand (see below), housing supply, resilience, and financing, among other subindexes. Of the top markets to watch—based on markets that saw the greatest improvement between June and December 2023—Cleveland tops the list.
The HMI Demand subindex includes government data on employment, unemployment, household growth, consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan, median home sales prices from Redfin, and observed, smoothed housing rental prices from Zillow.
Raleigh, North Carolina – 79.2
Denver – 78.9
Durham, North Carolina – 77.6
Virginia Beach, Virginia – 77.2
Boise City, Idaho – 72.5
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