New data from realtor.com® reveals Midland, Texas was the nation’s hottest housing market for the second month in a row in May.
Only four California markets appeared on the monthly list of the nation’s 20 hottest markets in sharp contrast of two months ago when more than half of the hottest housing markets were in California.
May hotness was well distributed with 9 other states represented in the top 20 list: Texas, Massachusetts, Ohio, Idaho, New York, Michigan, Colorado, Indiana, Washington and Wisconsin. In fact, only two months ago the list was dominated by California markets when the top 10 included: San Francisco; Vallejo, Calif.; San Jose, Calif; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Stockton, Calif. Several of these markets made the list of top areas Californians are looking to leave, released last week.
“The California housing market has been hot for a long time – but may be too hot. Our May hotness index further confirms we’re seeing that as prices in California continue to soar, people are increasingly looking elsewhere,” said Javier Vivas, director of economic research for realtor.com®. “As we continue into what we expect to be the hottest home-buying season in history, look for a wide variety of locales to remain red-hot.”
Spill-over of demand for more affordable markets is also as evident as ever in the list, with seven Midwest metros in the top 20, the highest since we started tracking. Markets that saw the largest jump in hotness last month were Fort Wayne, Ind. and Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich., which moved up 20 and 16 spots, respectively, since April likely due to their cold climate delaying the start of spring buying season.
Nationally, inventory declined 6 percent year over year in May and increased 6% compared to April 2018, according to realtor.com monthly data. Median listing prices only grew 8% year over year for the third month in a row, down from 10% in February. Part of this deceleration can be attributed to 557,000 new listings hitting the market in May, the highest number since July 2015.
Realtor.com® creates the list by analyzing housing market supply and demand by using realtor.com® listing views as an indicator of demand and median days on market as an indicator of supply.
| May 2018 Realtor.com® Hotness Rankings | ||||
| May Rank | 20 Hottest Markets | May Median Age of Inventory | April Rank | April Median Age of Inventory |
| 1 | Midland, Texas | 28 days | 1 | 30 days |
| 2 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-N.H. | 28 days | 2 | 30 days |
| 3 | San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif. | 22 days | 3 | 24 days |
| 4 | Columbus, Ohio | 31 days | 4 | 32 days |
| 5 | Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif. | 31 days | 5 | 30 days |
| 6 | Boise City, Idaho | 31 days | 11 | 34 days |
| 7 | Stockton-Lodi, Calif | 30 days | 8 | 32 days |
| 8 | Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, N.Y. | 33 days | 17 | 41 days |
| 9 | Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich. | 31 days | 25 | 39 days |
| 10 | Fort Wayne, Ind. | 35 days | 30 | 47 days |
| 11 | Colorado Springs, Colo. | 30 days | 6 | 30 days |
| 12 | Sacramento—Roseville—Arden-Arcade, Calif. | 31 days | 7 | 33 days |
| 13 | Worcester, Mass.-Conn. | 34 days | 21 | 40 days |
| 14 | Rochester, N.Y. | 37 days | 14 | 38 days |
| 15 | Ann Arbor, Mich. | 32 days | 9 | 36 days |
| 16 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Mich. | 37 days | 16 | 40 days |
| 17 | Odessa, Texas | 34 days | 15 | 37 days |
| 18 | Spokane-Spokane Valley, Wash. | 33 days | 13 | 34 days |
| 19 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas | 37 days | 19 | 38 days |
| 20 | Racine, Wis. | 39 days | 12 | 38 days |
**Realtor.com® reviewed listing views by market as an indicator of demand and median days on market as an indicator of supply. This analysis led to the identification of the 20 hottest medium-sized to large markets in the country.
