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America’s Hottest Housing Markets Nicole Friedman
Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho
Austin©/ Adobe Stock
America’s Hottest Housing Markets
Three Utah cities make the The Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Emerg Due to limited rights, this story is only available in ing Housing Market Index.the print issue of the Salt Lake Realtor® magazine.
Journal website but charges may apply.
The lakeside city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, tops the list of the country’s hottest emerging housing markets, according to the ranking. The Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Market Index ranks the 300 biggest metro areas in the U.S. The rankings look at which housing markets are expected to provide a strong return on investment—and are a nice place to live. After Coeur d’Alene, the top metro areas in the ranking are Austin, Texas, Springfield, Ohio, and Billings, Mont. Spokane, Wash., just across the state border from Coeur d’Alene, ranks fifth. Buyers from other Western states are moving to northern Idaho in droves, seeking a more rural and less expensive place to live, said Kristen Johnson, a real-estate agent at Century 21 Beutler & Associates in Coeur d’Alene. Workers able to work remotely are also choosing to relocate, she said. “Even though it’s a city, it’s definitely got those small-town values,” said Erin Evans, who moved in December to Coeur d’Alene from Forest Grove, Ore., after her husband Will got a job at a nearby hospital. “People are friendly. Right
Austin, Texas
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now, I’m looking out my window and I see my News Corp, parent of The Wall Street Journal, neighbor’s kids playing outside. You feel that it’s operates Realtor.com. a little more safe.” Some buyers have been drawn to Coeur They bought a three-bedroom house in November that includes a downstairs apartment, d’Alene’s more relaxed Covid-19-related restrictions, said Lea Williams, associate broker Due to limited rights, this story is only available in which they plan to rent out for extra income. at Tomlinson Sotheby’s International Realty the print issue of the Salt Lake Realtor® magazine. The median sales price in the Coeur d’Alene region rose in March to $476,900, up 47 percent from a year earlier, according to the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors®. Finding a in Coeur d’Alene. Students in Coeur d’Alene public schools have been able to attend school in person at least part-time all year, according to a spokesman for the school district. A copy of this article is available on the Wall Street Journal website but charges may apply. home to buy in the metro area of about 166,000 The Panhandle Health District lifted a mask is getting tougher: Inventory of homes for sale mandate for five counties in northern Idaho shrank by 71 percent to just 337 homes. That last month, and Coeur d’Alene’s school board amounts to less than a month’s supply. voted this month to lift its mask requirement for “That’s not enough to go around—therefore, students and staff. every listing gets 30 offers,” Ms. Johnson said. Kootenai County, where Coeur d’Alene is based, “Since the pandemic, our market has been crazy.” had 105.6 Covid-19 cases per 1,000 people as of About 70 percent of page views on Coeur d’Alene property listings came from outside the state in the first quarter, up from about 66 percent April 19, in the top half of counties in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. a year earlier, according to Realtor.com. The top Coeur d’Alene is also a popular second-home metro areas for interest in Coeur d’Alene listings and luxury market owing to the area’s natural were Seattle, Spokane and Los Angeles. beauty and access to outdoor activities, such as
skiing and water sports. That has helped boost the number of high-end sales. In the first two months of the year, 67 homes in the area sold for $1 million and above, up from 12 sales in that price range in the first two months of 2020, Ms. Williams said. There are downsides to the runup in housing prices, especially for locals who may struggle to compete with out-of-state buyers who have higher budgets. New residents who recently sold homes in more expensive markets such as Seattle and Los Angeles are often able to buy homes in Coeur d’Alene in cash. That threatens to price out some professionals the city needs. “It will prove increasingly difficult to attract teachers to our school district if they cannot find reasonably priced housing here,” said Scott Maben, spokesman for Coeur d’Alene Public Schools. “We are greatly concerned.” The Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Market Index ranks the 300 biggest metro areas in the U.S. In addition to housingmarket indicators, the index incorporates economic and lifestyle data, including unemployment rate, wages, commute time and small-business loans. Coeur d’Alene had a 4.3 percent unemployment rate in February, compared with 6 percent nationally, and average weekly wages of $824 in the third quarter of 2020, compared with $1,173 nationally. Home prices in the top 10 markets in the index have risen 27 percent on average in the past year, outpacing a 14 percent nationwide rise, said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. The 10 top areas in the index also had a higher proportion of their home-shopping traffic come from buyers outside those metro areas, compared with the market as a whole, Ms. Hale said. “Home buyers are broadening their search horizons in a way they haven’t before,” she said. Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright © 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. License number 505838056347.
The Wall Street Journal/ Realtor.com Emerging Housing Market Index on page 14.
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Metro areas ranked according to real-estate market data and economic health. Due to limited rights, this story is only available in Ranking is as of April 2021
the print issue of the Salt Lake Realtor® magazine. 1 2 Coeur D’Alene Idaho Austin-Round Rock Texas 51 Provo-Orem Utah 52 Jefferson City MissouriA copy of this article is available on the Wall Street 3 Springfield Ohio 53 Salt Lake City Journal website but charges may apply. Utah 4 Billings Montana 54 Worcester Massachusetts-Connecticut 5 Spokane-Spokane Valley Washington 55 Stockton-Lodi California 6 Lafayette-West Lafayette Indiana 56 St. Cloud Minnesota 7 Reno Nevada 57 Topeka Kansas 8 Concord New Hampshire 58 Yuma Arizona 9 Manchester-Nashua New Hampshire 59 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Florida 10 Santa Cruz-Watsonville California 60 Grand Junction Colorado 11 Burlington North Carolina 61 State College Pennsylvania 12 Akron Ohio 62 Tucson Arizona 13 Eureka-Arcata-Fortuna California 63 Olympia-Tumwater Washington 14 Appleton Wisconsin 64 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara California 15 Modesto California 65 Harrisburg-Carlisle Pennsylvania 16 Prescott Arizona 66 Roanoke Virginia 17 Columbus Ohio 67 Providence-Warwick Rhode Island-Massachusetts 18 Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade California 68 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale Arizona 19 Madison Wisconsin 69 Salem Oregon 20 Columbia Missouri 70 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Florida 21 Boise City Idaho 71 Fayetteville North Carolina 22 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles- 72 Ann Arbor Michigan Arroyo Grande California 73 Dayton Ohio 23 Johnson City Tennessee 74 Jacksonville North Carolina 24 Yuba City California 75 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura California 25 Toledo Ohio 76 Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Pennsylvania-New Jersey 26 Rochester New York 77 Durham-Chapel Hill North Carolina 27 Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls New York 78 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia North Carolina-South Carolina 28 Greenville North Carolina 79 Knoxville Tennessee 29 Visalia-Porterville California 80 Grand Rapids-Wyoming Michigan 30 Vallejo-Fairfield California 81 Eugene Oregon 31 Boulder Colorado 82 Kennewick-Richland Washington 32 Colorado Springs Colorado 83 Monroe Michigan 33 Ogden-Clearfield Utah 84 Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Arkansas-Missouri 34 Fort Wayne Indiana 85 Merced California 35 Janesville-Beloit Wisconsin 86 Pueblo Colorado 36 Gainesville Georgia 87 Albuquerque New Mexico 37 Oshkosh-Neenah Wisconsin 88 Lancaster Pennsylvania 38 La Crosse-Onalaska Wisconsin-Minnesota 89 Muskegon Michigan 39 Elizabethtown-Fort Knox Kentucky 90 Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island Florida 40 Trenton New Jersey 91 Bend-Redmond Oregon 41 Fresno California 92 Burlington-South Burlington Vermont 42 Killeen-Temple Texas 93 Boston-Cambridge-Newton Massachusetts-New Hampshire 43 Bremerton-Silverdale Washington 94 Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Virginia 44 Waco Texas 95 Wilmington North Carolina 45 Salinas California 96 Fort Collins Colorado 46 Canton-Massillon Ohio 97 Warner Robins Georgia 47 North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Florida 98 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Texas 48 Yakima Washington 99 Greensboro-High Point North Carolina 49 Portland-South Portland Maine 100 Santa Maria-Santa Barbara California 50 Elkhart-Goshen Indiana
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