Is it time to pack your bags for Colorado or New Hampshire?

There are a number of ways to evaluate or rank a “hot” real estate market. Take for example the latest from Realtor.com, which recently released its annual report on the top ZIP codes in U.S. real estate.

The rankings look at two factors: demand, as measured by the number of people clicking on property listings, and time on market. Only one ZIP code in each metropolitan area was considered, to prevent any one locale from dominating the list.

Here, then, are the hottest markets according to these metrics:

• Colorado Springs, Colorado
• West Irondequoit, New York
• Peabody, Massachusetts
• Manchester, New Hampshire
• Brentwood, North Carolina
• Lincoln Village, Ohio
• Milford, Massachusetts
• Concord, New Hampshire
• Farmington, Michigan
• Franklin, Tennessee

A familiar theme is evident in this list — many Americans are seeking out less expensive (and less crowded) suburban areas. As the New York Times points out, “(T)he top 10 ZIP codes were within about 20 minutes of a major metropolitan center, many with strong millennial job markets.”

As I noted above, this is just one way to analyze the current housing scene. Earlier this summer, Realtor.com and the Wall Street Journal released their second edition of the Emerging Housing Markets Index. Those rankings looked at a combination of lifestyle amenities and potential to see home price growth.

With these rankings released so close to each other, I thought it’d be interesting to compare lists to see if any cities show up twice. Three of them did:

• Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Manchester, New Hampshire
• Concord, New Hampshire

Are these the “it” cities in U.S. real estate right now? They very well could be, at least according to these recent accounts. Either way, the larger trend of people desiring these types of markets seems pretty clear. And with more companies allowing remote or hybrid work, employees are less tethered to offices in big cities and more inclined to move a bit farther away. That’s why having a defined answer when it comes to “de-location” is one of the key issues facing mobility teams today.