Realtor.com & the Wall Street Journal recently released their 3rd Emerging Housing Markets Index which identifies markets they believe will be good areas to purchase a home for both homeowners and investors. To get their index, they used a slate of housing market, economic vitality, and quality of life metrics to identify emerging housing markets for the largest 300 metropolitan areas in the United States.
“…After a rollercoaster over the past year and a half, the housing market is on better footing and has added approximately $3 trillion in value in the most recent 6 months while one measure of the U.S stock market has surged by more than $5 trillion. U.S. residential real estate is a major store of wealth that is more widely held than stocks. These two factors mean that housing is not only a large and valuable asset class, it has the ability to affect the financial outcomes of a broader swath of individuals and families than the U.S. stock market.”
The Top-20 Emerging Housing Markets:
| RANK | Metro Area | 2020 Population |
| 1 | Elkhart-Goshen, IN | 206,268 |
| 2 | Rapid City, SD | 142,876 |
| 3 | Topeka, KS | 231,862 |
| 4 | Raleigh, NC | 1,392,356 |
| 5 | Jefferson City, MO | 150,973 |
| 6 | Burlington, NC | 169,173 |
| 7 | Coeur d’Alene, ID | 165,656 |
| 8 | Eureka-Arcata-Fortuna, CA | 135,839 |
| 9 | Johnson City, TN | 203,980 |
| 10 | Huntsville, AL | 471,683 |
| 11 | Colorado Springs, CO | 747,337 |
| 12 | Fort Wayne, IN | 412,874 |
| 13 | Manchester-Nashua, NH | 417,738 |
| 14 | Kennewick-Richland, WA | 299,619 |
| 15 | Decatur, AL | 152,481 |
| 16 | Billings, MT | 181,723 |
| 17 | North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 837,983 |
| 18 | Waco, TX | 274,362 |
| 19 | Durham-Chapel Hill, NC | 645,559 |
| 20 | Boulder, CO | 326,020 |
Click here to read the full report at Realtor.com.
