It's considered the original boomtown and now Rochester, New York is booming again.
The city once known as "The Young Lion of the West" was the hottest housing market in the U.S. in March, according to a report from Realtor.com.
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This is the seventh time in the city’s history and the second month in a row that Rochester has ranked as the nation’s hottest market.
Sure, interest rates are too damn high, but c'mon, Rochester has been called the “cultural capital of Upstate New York" and the country’s 17th most “arts-vibrant” area, according to Realtor.com.
The city is home to the Strong National Museum of Play, Seabreeze Amusement Park, and the Seneca Park Zoo--and you can drive to Niagara Falls and Lake Ontario.
The market hotness rankings consider market demand, as measured by unique views per property on Realtor.com, and the pace of the market as measured by the number of days a listing remains active on the real estate listings website.
'Flying off the Market'
Listings in Rochester received 2.6 times more views than usual, and spent only 26 days on the market before buyers moved in.
“In other words, homes here are still flying off the market,” Realtor.com said.
Coming in second was Manchester, N.H., where where homes received 3.1 times more views per listing and spent a mere 31 days on the market. Hartford, CT ranked third.
The Northeast and Midwest both had a very hot month, according to Realtor.com, nailing down 11 spots each on the March list.
The top 20 hottest markets are spread out across 9 states, with five metro areas in Ohio and Wisconsin.
Northeast metros garnered an average 2.5 times the number of views per property as the typical US home while Midwest metro listings received twice the number of listings as is typical.
What's driving all this? Well, one glaringly obvious factor is an affordable price.
Homes in Rochester, for example, are listed for a median of $257,000, which is 40% below the nationwide figure $424,000.
"With low prices like these, high interest rates are simply less of an issue, which means homebuyers can shop freely rather than worry about pinching every penny," Realtor.com said.
However, not all hot markets are affordable. Take Manchester, where the listing prices are higher than the national median at $550,000.
Top 20 Hottest Housing Markets (March 2023)
- Rochester, NY
- Manchester, NH
- Hartford, CT
- Columbus, OH
- New Haven, CT
- Worcester, MA
- Concord, NH
- Springfield, MA
- Boston, MA
- Janesville, WI
- Dayton, OH
- Lafayette, IN
- La Crosse, MN
- State College, PA
- Akron, OH
- Canton, OH
- Toledo, OH
- Providence, RI
- Milwaukee, WI
- Allentown, PA / Madison, WI / Oshkosh, WI (tie)
No Boom Or Bust
The Manchester-Nashua, Springfield and Worcester metro areas all surround the Boston metro area, emphasizing the demand to be near Beantown.
So, while that listing price might be high, it’s still substantially lower than the nearby Boston metro where homes sell for a median of $824,000.
Hannah Jones, economic data analyst at Realtor.com, said that many of today’s hottest markets have been steady over the past few years, "while we’ve seen the boom and bust of a lot of Sun Belt markets and vacation areas.”
“These markets were riding with the national trends, but because they never had an explosion in price growth, they stayed relatively affordable, especially relative to the incomes of people who live there," Jones said in a statement.
Economic stability is another factor causing homebuyers to flock to certain markets, as illustrated by Columbus, Ohio, March’s fourth hottest market.
Although home prices are modest at $375,000, local real estate agent Andrew Show of Buyer’s Resource Realty Service pointed to the “energy” in the area that comes from having several world-class universities, state government offices, and headquarters for L Brands, Nationwide Insurance, and more.
Show also touted the Arch City’s progressive leanings in extending benefits to LGBTQ partners of city workers and a commitment to containing sprawl even as it redevelops older neighborhoods.
"We’re not experiencing any downturn," he told Realtor.com.
