This City in Upstate New York Is the Hottest Real Estate Market of 2025, According to Zillow

If you’re a home buyer looking to move somewhere with cold winters, hot chicken wings and Great Lakes, you’d better be ready to pay up. That’s because real estate website Zillow has just released its predictions for the hottest housing markets of 2025, and, for the second year in a row, Buffalo, New York stands at number one.

To reach its conclusion, Zillow said its rankings are based on the “forecast for local home value growth and how quickly homes are selling.” Another major factor Zillow looked at was the ratio of “jobs per new home permitted,” which compares the number of work opportunities in an area (i.e. a draw for new residents) with the number of new homes being built. Buffalo came in at 2.0, meaning for every two jobs there would be only one new construction home available, thus driving up demand in the existing home market.

“Construction that keeps pace with an area’s growth remains a crucial piece of keeping homes available and accessible. In chilly Buffalo, competition among buyers will remain hot, with employment growing far faster than builders are adding homes,” explained Skylar Olsen, chief economist at Zillow.

Aside from Buffalo, Zillow’s top ten housing markets are largely clustered around the Northeast and Midwest, as buyers look for nearby alternatives to major cities like Chicago and New York City.

Here’s the cream of the crop, as ranked by Zillow:

1. Buffalo, NY
2. Indianapolis, IN
3. Providence, RI
4. Hartford, CT
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. St. Louis, MO
7. Charlotte, NC
8. Kansas City, MO
9. Richmond, VA
10. Salt Lake City, UT

According to Zillow, Buffalo’s top tier status in 2024 proved to be on the money, as upstate New York cities like Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo were among the strongest seller’s markets last year. “Although affordability has improved slightly compared to last year, it’s still top of mind for buyers,” the announcement from Zillow reads. “Lower-than-average home prices and rent costs in Buffalo as well as Midwest metros like Indianapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City have bolstered demand in these areas, helping push them to the top of the list.”

But don’t get totally distracted by the top ten spots. In its ranking of the top 50 metro areas, Zillow highlighted three that were heating up quickly. Oklahoma City, OK and Birmingham, AL both jumped 21 spots compared to 2024’s list, ending up in the 17th and 20th spots, respectively. And Virginia Beach, VA leapt 23 spots higher than last year, landing at 13 on the current list.

Of the top 50, the vast majority are located in the Eastern and Central time zones, though some outliers and major cities are in states like California, Colorado, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Zillow cites “relative affordability and few homes for sale” as “common threads among what should be the most competitive markets for buyers this year.”

“Shoppers nationwide should see more options for sale than in recent years, along with slow and steady price growth,” Olsen continued. “That’s the good news. But both buyers and sellers should expect unpredictable mortgage rates.” You can see the full list of the top 50 hottest real estate markets, plus their home value index and growth forecast on Zillow’s website.