March 2022 Hottest Housing Markets

Highlights

• Manchester, NH remains in the top spot on the hottest housing markets list in March for the 11th time in 12 months.
• The top 20 hottest markets are spread out across 15 states, with multiple metros in California, Massachusetts, North Carolina and New Hampshire.
• As prices soar to new heights nationwide, affordability remains a key feature of half of March’s hottest markets with median listing prices below the national median.
• The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL metro area again saw the largest increase in its Hotness ranking among larger metros compared to last year, securing its highest hotness ranking (72nd) for any March on record (available data going back to 2016).

Manchester, NH remained in the top spot on the hottest housing markets list in March. This area originally topped the list back in August 2020, and has held the number one spot a total of 13 times. Manchester first cracked into the top 20 in May 2018, and has remained in the top 2 for the last year.

Realtor.com’s Market Hotness rankings take into account two aspects of the housing market: 1) market demand, as measured by unique viewers per property on Realtor.com, and 2) the pace of the market as measured by the number of days a listing remains active on Realtor.com.

Focus on Affordability Returns

After holding 5 spots on the hottest markets list in January, California metros seem to be on the decline once again with only 2 metros on the list in March. These pricey California markets have been replaced with more affordable markets in the Northeast and Midwest. Overall, half of March’s hottest markets had median listing prices below the national median. The average listing price for the 20 hottest markets was $492,000 in March 2022, 21.5% higher than the national median, but 12.5% lower than February’s average. Overall, fifteen states were represented on our list of top 20 hottest housing markets in March, the most since August 2021, indicating diversified demand as affordability becomes harder to come by. 

North Carolina boasted 3 markets on the list in March (Hickory-Lenoir-Morgantown, Burlington, and Raleigh), the most of any state. Rounding out the southern region with these North Carolina locales was Johnson City, TN. Northeastern markets have returned to the list with gusto as spring approaches, holding 8 spots, the most of any March on record. The West and South regions both held 4 spots on the list, dwindling from 8 and 5, respectively, in January 2022.

The states featured in our top 20 list this month are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Our Hottest Housing Markets, by design, are the areas where homes sell fastest and have lots of potential buyers checking out each listing. As a group, Realtor.com’s 20 Hottest Housing Markets received 1.3 to 3.6 times the number of viewers per home for sale compared to the national rate. These markets are seeing homes-for-sale move up to 30 days more quickly than the typical property in the United States. 

The median national home price for active listings reached a new high of $405,000 in March, up 13.5% year-on-year. March’s hottest markets are a mix of highly desirable, scenic markets with a boost from seasonality, and more affordable Midwest and Northeast markets such as Topeka, KS and Rochester, NY. The hottest markets saw median listing prices reach $492,000 in March—21.5% higher, on average, than the national median of $405,000. Notably, the two most expensive markets on the list were the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA metro areas, where the median listing prices were $1,498,000 and $1,263,000, respectively.

March 2022 – Top 20 Hottest Housing Markets

Relative Affordability Rules in the Top Hottest Markets

Though the average median listing price of the hottest markets is higher than the national median, relative affordability reigns supreme in the five hottest markets. The Manchester-Nashua, NH metro area has been a mainstay in the top 20 hottest markets since early 2019. Manchester-Nashua, along with the number 2 market, neighboring Concord, NH, offer short commutes and relative affordability compared to nearby Boston. The Boston metro area saw median home prices reach $755,000 in March 2022, 63.4% and 76.8% higher than the neighboring Manchester-Nashua and Concord, NH metros where prices reached $462,000 and $427,000, respectively. Homes in red-hot Manchester-Nashua spent just 8 days on the market in March, a month less than the national average. Homes in Concord typically spent 17 days on the market, three weeks less than the typical US home.

Contributing to the affordability of March’s hottest markets were the midwestern locales of La Crosse-Onalaska, WI and Topeka, KS which held the 3rd and 4th spots on the list. These metros are among the most affordable hottest markets with a median listing price of $300,000 (+12.1% YoY) in La Crosse-Onalaska and $195,000 in Topeka (+21.3% YoY), both significantly less expensive than the national median, despite price growth in the last year. Properties in La Crosse-Onalaska and Topeka garnered twice as many viewers as the typical US property and spent 15 and 9 days fewer on the market, respectively, than was typical in the US.

Rounding out the top 5 hottest markets is Burlington, NC, where the theme of affordability continues as typical listing prices reached $350,000 (+27.3% YoY) in March, 13.6% lower than the national median. Burlington is a local hot spot with the top sources of demand coming from nearby Greensboro and Durham, NC. Burlington has been among the top 20 hottest markets since September 2020, and has been in the top 2 markets a total of 5 times in the last year. 

Most Improved Large Markets

Larger urban markets continue to cool down in the rankings, with the largest 40 markets across the country dropping by 12 spots, on average, since March 2021. 

Of the largest 40 metros, the most-improved housing markets were all in the South: Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL (+138 spots); Nashville-Davidson, TN (+39 spots), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (+33 spots); Charlotte-Concord, SC (+28 spots); and Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL (+19 spots).

After struggling early in the days of the pandemic, the Orlando, FL housing market is now seeing real estate sell faster and garner more interest, earning it the position of fastest-rising large market on our list for the eighth month in a row. In the first quarter of 2022, this metro received the most attention from viewers in the Miami, FL, New York, NY and Washington D.C. metro areas. In March, the Orlando area rose 138 spots in hotness rank compared to last year. The metro area clocked in as the 72nd hottest metro in the US, the hottest ranking Orlando has seen in March in the available data (going back to 2016). The typical Orlando home spent 32 days on market, the shortest time on record for the metro. Moreover, the number of viewers per property in Orlando rose 17.6% year over year in March.

On the supply side, the five most-improved large markets saw inventory move an average 12 days more quickly than last year. In comparison, the largest 40 markets overall saw properties spend 8 days fewer on the market than last year, on average. The typical property spent 25 days on the market in the most-improved metros, 13 days shorter than the national rate.

Markets Seeing the Largest Jump in Rankings (March 2022)

Hannah Jones