12/11/2025
Busy year ahead?
National Association of Realtors’ “Top Ten Housing Markets of 2026” includes us, right here in the Charleston Area…
The following is an article sent out by NAR to us Realtors forecasting the national housing market and where their top 10 markets for buying will be in the year ahead…
10 Home Buying Hot Spots to Watch in 2026
New NAR analysis points to housing markets where the data shows home sales will likely be liveliest in the coming year.
Lower mortgage rates and rising inventories are expected to unlock more home sales in 2026—and several markets are positioned to benefit the most. The National Association of REALTORS® released its list of the 10 housing markets poised to outperform in the coming year during its virtual “Real Estate Forecast Summit: The Year Ahead” on Tuesday.
“The top 10 housing hot spots for 2026 have a combination of strong demand potential, projected improvements in affordability, and, most critically, a housing stock that matches the budgets of the buyers who are returning to the market,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.
Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of real estate research at NAR, adds that while a handful of markets may lead the housing rebound, more households nationwide are likely to benefit from the same factors driving these top 10 markets. Lower mortgage rates, in particular, are expected to improve housing affordability in 2026. NAR forecasts the 30-year rate to average 6% in 2026—a significant drop from about 7% at the start of 2025. That decline could expand the pool of qualified home buyers by 5.5 million households nationwide, including 1.6 million renter households, NAR’s analysis shows.
Still, “home buying benefits most when affordability is matched with attainability,” that is, a housing for-sale inventory that aligns with buyers’ incomes, Evangelou notes. Where those conditions exist, real estate professionals are likely to see more of a boost in home sales than other areas.
2026’s Market Leaders
To identify the top markets, NAR analyzed metro areas with populations over 250,000, weighing factors such as buyer eligibility at lower mortgage rates, improvements in for-sale inventory, income growth, overall affordability and more.
“We analyzed the full landscape of U.S. metro areas—everything from job growth and migration to affordability, millennial buying power and new construction,” Evangelou says. “These [metros] aren’t necessarily the most talked-about areas, but they’re where buyers will finally see more openings and sellers can expect more activity as the market improves. Each metric tells a story, but together they reflect a housing market that’s starting to rebalance in 2026.”
The top housing hot spots for 2026 are:
Charleston, S.C.
Charlotte, N.C.–S.C.
Columbus, Ohio
Indianapolis, Ind.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minn.–Wis.
Raleigh, N.C.
Richmond, Va.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Spokane, Wash.
10 Home Buying Hot Spots to Watch in 2026
December 9, 2025Residential Real Estate
By: Melissa Dittmann Tracey
