30 Hottest Housing Markets That Will Help You Build Wealth

If you’re eyeing housing markets with a strong investing upside, you may want to check out the Keystone State.

Pennsylvania landed seven cities in the top 30 housing markets for growing your wealth this year. That’s based on a new GOBankingRates analysis, which looked at factors like percentage increases in home value over the past two years, the average sale-to-list ratio, and other criteria.

Here are a few more key findings:

• The 30 best bang-for-your buck housing markets are all located in the northern half of the U.S., east of the Mississippi River. Only two regions — the Midwest and the Northeast — are represented.
• After Pennsylvania, the most represented states are New York and Ohio, with five entries each. Wisconsin lands four locales on the list, including three in the top 10.
• All nine of the states represented in the list are located in the Rust Belt, or in historically industrialized regions.
• Among the cities in the list, Utica, New York, saw the largest one-year increase in home value (6.2%). Rockford, Illinois, saw the largest two-year bump — a whopping 18.25%.

Here are the 30 best housing markets to grow your wealth, counting down from 30 to 1 based on 10 weighted factors. You can find the full methodology at the end of the gallery.

Also see America’s best hidden gem housing markets.

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.70%
• 2-year % change in home value: 10.2%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 100.2%
• % of listings with price cuts: 26%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.99%
• 2-year % change in home value: 12.6%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 97.5%
• % of listings with price cuts: 27.2%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.63%
• 2-year % change in home value: 10%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 102.4%
• % of listings with price cuts: 21.9%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.04%
• 2-year % change in home value: 8.10%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 100.8%
• % of listings with price cuts: 24.9%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.29%
• 2-year % change in home value: 13.3%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 98%
• % of listings with price cuts: 21%

• 1-year % change in home value: 2.55%
• 2-year % change in home value: 11.4%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 101.8%
• % of listings with price cuts: 17.4%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.55%
• 2-year % change in home value: 9.8%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 100.7%
• % of listings with price cuts: 24.2%

• 1-year % change in home value: 2.82%
• 2-year % change in home value: 10.6%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 102.2%
• % of listings with price cuts: 21.7%

• 1-year % change in home value: 2.56%
• 2-year % change in home value: 8.39%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 101.8%
• % of listings with price cuts: 19.2%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.48%
• 2-year % change in home value: 11.5%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 100.2%
• % of listings with price cuts: 24.7%

• 1-year % change in home value: 5.24%
• 2-year % change in home value: 13.1%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 98.6%
• % of listings with price cuts: 24.4%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.29%
• 2-year % change in home value: 9.76%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 101.4%
• % of listings with price cuts: 20.8%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.56%
• 2-year % change in home value: 9.61%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 99.4%
• % of listings with price cuts: 21.5%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.39%
• 2-year % change in home value: 9.92%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 107.8%
• % of listings with price cuts: 20%

• 1-year % change in home value: 5.19%
• 2-year % change in home value: 9.43%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 100.6%
• % of listings with price cuts: 25.7%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.68%
• 2-year % change in home value: 12.8%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 102.8%
• % of listings with price cuts: 20.8%

• 1-year % change in home value: 6.20%
• 2-year % change in home value: 14.2%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 98.9%
• % of listings with price cuts: 21.5%

• 1-year % change in home value: 5.95%
• 2-year % change in home value: 12.1%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 99.6%
• % of listings with price cuts: 25.8%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.87%
• 2-year % change in home value: 13.5%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 102.3%
• % of listings with price cuts: 19.8%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.43%
• 2-year % change in home value: 8.77%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 102.2%
• % of listings with price cuts: 21.3%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.18%
• 2-year % change in home value: 8.96%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 102%
• % of listings with price cuts: 16.4%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.83%
• 2-year % change in home value: 10.8%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 101.5%
• % of listings with price cuts: 20.8%

• 1-year % change in home value: 5.29%
• 2-year % change in home value: 16.6%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 105.6%
• % of listings with price cuts: 19.6%

• 1-year % change in home value: 6.19%
• 2-year % change in home value: 13.8%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 101%
• % of listings with price cuts: 22.3%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.28%
• 2-year % change in home value: 14.1%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 105.3%
• % of listings with price cuts: 18.2%

• 1-year % change in home value: 7.99%
• 2-year % change in home value: 13.9%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 99.4%
• % of listings with price cuts: 26.6%

• 1-year % change in home value: 4.94%
• 2-year % change in home value: 12.5%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 101.6%
• % of listings with price cuts: 14.1%

• 1-year % change in home value: 3.73%
• 2-year % change in home value: 11.8%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 117.7%
• % of listings with price cuts: 13.7%

• 1-year % change in home value: 6.64%
• 2-year % change in home value: 18.3%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 100.6%
• % of listings with price cuts: 19.1%

• 1-year % change in home value: 6.35%
• 2-year % change in home value: 12%
• Average sale-to-list ratio: 102.2%
• % of listings with price cuts: 11.8%

Methodology: For this piece, GOBankingRates analyzed the 200 largest Metro Statistical Areas (MSAs) and sourced the following factors from Zillow’s July 2025 data: 1) 1-year percent change in home value, 2) 1-year change in home value in USD, 3) 2-year percent change in home value, 4) 2-year change in home value in USD, 5) for-sale inventory, 6) mean days from listing to pending,  7) mean list-to-sale ratio, 8) mean days from pending to close, 9) share of listings with a price cut, and 10) mean price cut. All 10 factors were then scored and combined, with the highest scores representing the worst housing markets. In final calculations, factors 1, 2, 9 and 10 were weighted 2x and factor 5 was weighted 0.5x. All data is up to date as of Oct. 7, 2025.