Recent housing market forecasts suggest that home prices nationwide will continue rising over the next 12 months, at least in most parts of the country. But the gains will probably be smaller than those recorded over the last 12 months. As for high performers, the five cities below could outpace the nation in terms of year-over-year price growth through 2018.
5 Housing Markets With Above-Average Forecasts: 2017 – 2018
According to the real estate analysts and economists at Zillow, home prices in the U.S. are expected to rise by around 2.6% over the next 12 months, extending into April 2018.
But some cities could see larger gains as a result of strong demand and a limited supply of homes. Here are five housing markets that are forecast to outpace the nation over the next year, where house values are concerned.
Bridgeport, Connecticut: 5.2%
Starting in the Northeast, we have the real estate market of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Bridgeport is expected to see above-average price increases into the first part of 2018.
The median home value in this relatively affordable housing market was $165,200, as of April 2017, after a gain of around 10% over the last year. Zillow’s economists expect prices to rise by more than 5% over the next 12 months, nearly double the national outlook for the same period.
Dallas, Texas: 5.8%
According to a recent article on DallasNews.com: “All but five of the 45 Dallas-area residential districts that The Dallas Morning News tracks each quarter had home sales price hikes [over the last year], according to data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.”
When looking at the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period last year, the biggest home-price gains occurred in DeSoto (25%), Lancaster (22%), southern Dallas (22%) and the Park Cities (22%).
Across the city as a whole, Zillow reported a 15.4% increase in median home prices over the last year, and predicts the housing market will appreciate by nearly 6% over the next year.
Sacramento, California: 5.4%
Earlier this year, Zillow published a list of what it felt would be the ten hottest housing markets of 2017, in terms of price growth. Sacramento, California was ranked #10 on their list, out of the 100 largest metro areas in the country.
According to the company’s research team, home prices within the Sacramento housing market rose by 11.3% over the last year, and are expected to climb by another 5.4% over the next 12 months.
Seattle, Washington: 5.1%
The Seattle housing market has generated a slew of headlines over the last couple of years, mainly due to the high level of competition among home buyers. (It was also ranked in the #2 spot, on the list of “hottest markets” mentioned above.) Housing inventory is tight in Seattle, while demand continues to grow from population growth.
According to Zillow, home prices in the city rose by 12.2% over the last 12 months. Looking forward, the company has forecast a gain of 5.1% between now and April 2018.
Tampa, Florida: 4.5%
Home prices in the hot Tampa, Florida housing market rose by a whopping 15% over the last 12 months, according to the team at Zillow. To put that in perspective, historically “normal” appreciation is somewhere around 3% annually. So the Tampa housing market has experienced some seriously above-average price gains in recent months.
Going forward, Zillow expects home value appreciation to slow considerably. They’ve predicted that the median price for houses in Tampa will rise by 4.5% from April 2017 to April 2018. While that does signal a cooling trend, it’s still higher than the company’s national outlook (for a 2.6% price gain over the next 12 months). So the Tampa real estate market deserves a spot on our list of high performers.
Disclaimer: This story contains housing market forecasts and home-price projections that were provided by third parties not associated with our company. The Home Buying Institute makes no claims, assertions or guarantees about future real estate tends.