There’s always buzz around the best cities for real estate or the ideal communities for first-time home-buyers. These are typically long-established homeowning hotspots whose real estate markets are beginning to slow. So which communities are, in fact, seeing the fastest growth in housing markets nationwide?

After the bursting of the housing bubble and the subsequent 2007-2009 recession, many regional housing markets around the country have been slow to recover. Additionally, others that have perennially dominated the real estate stage are seeing slowing or even declining trends in their sales prices as their steady growth becomes harder to sustain. However, despite these challenges, there are still communities in each state whose housing markets are growing in force.

There are many factors that translate into gains in the housing market—metrics including increased home value, new construction, homeownership rates, and positive trends in sales prices. To perform well in all of these elements is a huge accomplishment, and Insurify wants to recognize the communities that excel above all others in their state. Without further ado, here are the winners of Insurify’s Best Up and Coming Housing Markets Awards!

Selection Process for Insurify’s 2019 Best Up and Coming Housing Markets Awards

To determine the best housing markets, the data science team at Insurify, a homeowners insurance quotes comparison site, crunched the numbers on several metrics:

  • Relative increase in Home Value Index since 2009, Home Value forecasts, and current year-over-year median sales price trends, and from Zillow Research.
  • Total building permits issued in 2018 as recorded by the National Association of Home Builders.
  • Proportion of homeowners as reported by City-Data.com.

States with insufficient municipal data (Delaware, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont) were excluded from the analysis. Using a proprietary scoring algorithm, these factors were used to determine the number one community in each state with the best up and coming housing market.

The final list contains both large cities witnessing a surge in popularity and smaller locales breaking onto the scene. All are exemplary in creating communities to which homebuyers are flocking in droves.

Winners of Insurify’s 2019 Best Up & Coming Housing Markets Awards

Alabama: Tuscaloosa

Alaska: Ketchikan

Arizona: Lake Havasu City

Arkansas: Paragould

California: San Jose

Colorado: Greeley

Connecticut: Torrington

Florida: Punta Gorda

Georgia: Atlanta

Hawaii: Kapa’a

Idaho: Lewiston

Illinois: Charleston

Indiana: Kendallville

Iowa: Boone

Kansas: Garden City

Kentucky: Owensboro

Louisiana: Natchitoches

Maine: Portland

Maryland: Baltimore

Massachusetts: Vineyard Haven

Michigan: Grand Rapids

Minnesota: Rochester

Mississippi: Jackson

Missouri: Hannibal

Montana: Bozeman

Nebraska: Columbus

Nevada: Carson City

New Hampshire: Laconia

New Jersey: Ocean City

New Mexico: Santa Fe

New York: Buffalo

North Carolina: Charlotte

North Dakota: Williston

Ohio: Columbus

Oklahoma: Woodward

Oregon: Albany

Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh

South Carolina: Greenwood

Tennessee: Nashville

Texas: Dallas

Utah: Ogden

Virginia: Richmond

Washington: Kennewick

West Virginia: Beckley

Wisconsin: Marinette

Wyoming: Cheyenne

If you have questions or comments about this article, please contact insights@insurify.com

More From 93.7 WBLK