(NEXSTAR) – You’ve no doubt heard that a lot of big city home buyers looked out to the suburbs for more space during the first year of the pandemic. As we close out 12 months of socially-distanced living, that real estate trend does not appear to be going anywhere.
According to a February home sales recap released by Realtor.com, the hottest real estate markets in the country don’t include San Francisco, Denver or Cleveland, but homes are turning over quickly down the highway in those same states.
Analysis by Realtor.com found that three California metros with median prices of around a half-million dollars were the most competitive spots for buyers in the United States in February. Vallejo, Stockton and Yuba City, California beat out Burlington, North Carolina and Concord, New Hampshire among the top five markets. In all five locations, the average home sits on the market for less than a month.
Nearly every market on the list is commutable to one of the state’s larger job centers.
“Spillover and secondary markets continue to dominate the list as buyers prioritize affordability and space while remaining close to major hubs,” Realtor’s Nicolas Bedo and Danielle Hale wrote in an analysis of the data.
Realtor uses total listing views and average days on the market per home to determine which markets are “hot.”
Though California led the pack with eight of the top markets, 12 states were represented, including Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. See the full list on Realtor.com.
Austin and San Antonio were among the big city markets moving up the hot list in February, this despite disruptions brought on by severe weather and power outages.
Tampa and Jacksonville, Florida also showed big increases in competition for homes, with each seeing significant drops on the number of days homes sit on the market on average compared to a year ago.