MW The hottest real-estate market of 2025 is a New England area that gives home buyers more bang for their buck

By Aarthi Swaminathan

Homes are 'just a lot less expensive here,' one local real-estate broker says

The hottest housing market this summer offers a haven from sky-high home prices, according to a new report by Realtor.com that says New Hampshire's Manchester-Nashua metro area gives buyers the most bang for their buck.

The real-estate company analyzed the 200 biggest metro areas in the U.S. and looked at eight factors to determine what is expected to be the top market this summer in the Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com's Summer 2025 Housing Market Ranking.

The ranking highlights places where home prices are expected to grow, and which offer a high quality of life and good economic prospects. Rankings are determined in part by current real-estate demand; how much interest there is in online for-sale listings in the area; housing supply; how long houses stay on the market; property-tax trends; climate risk; and other economic and quality-of-life indicators.

Manchester-Nashua has been consistently ranked as one of the top markets over the last four years because its homes are relatively cheaper than those in neighboring areas.

The area also presents promising employment prospects. Several major companies have a presence in Manchester and Nashua, which are about 20 miles apart from each other. Nashua is where companies such as BAE Systems (UK:BA) $(BAESY)$, a defense and security company, and Southern New Hampshire Health, a regional medical center, have offices. The city is also known for its tech sector, with companies like Oracle (ORCL) having locations there.

Manchester is minutes away from Southern New Hampshire University's 300-acre campus. The city is also a major healthcare hub as several large medical centers are based there, including Elliot Hospital.

The typical home in Manchester-Nashua was valued at about $520,000 as of June 30, according to real-estate platform Zillow (Z), while the national average was about $370,000. In Boston, which is about one-and-a-half hours south of Manchester-Nashua, a typical home was valued at $804,000.

If a buyer put 5% down on a typical home in Manchester or Nashua, their monthly mortgage payment would be about $3,400 if the buyer was financing the home with a 30-year mortgage at a rate of about 6.5%.

"Though the area is pricier than the national norm, it may represent a bargain to buyers from nearby, expensive economic hubs," Hannah Jones, a senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, told MarketWatch.

Nationally, the median existing home price hit an all-time high of $435,300 in June, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Lifelong New Hampshire resident Kara Carrier, who is also a real-estate broker based in Manchester, told MarketWatch that about four in 10 buyers she's worked with come from out of state.

New Hampshire was recently named the best state to retire in by a Bankrate survey.

"It's just a lot less expensive here," she said. New Hampshire - whose state motto is "Live Free or Die" - is also known for having no general sales tax and no state income tax.

To be sure, first-time buyers are still having a tough time battling it out over homes in New Hampshire. Properties priced under $500,000 are still "on fire," Carrier said. One buyer she's working with keeps getting outbid for homes in her price range of about $410,000. One open house they attended had 30 people and the buyer had to compete against 10 offers, many of which were for over the asking price.

"That first-time home-buyer market is still really crazy and out of control," the broker said. "I spend a lot of time with those buyers because it's just so competitive at that price range. Instead of just being able to show somebody four or five houses and then they put in an offer and get one, sometimes they can look at 15, 30 houses before they get one."

Still, buying a home in the area is worth pursuing, she says. "A starter home around Manchester would be around the $400,000 to $450,000 range," she added, "but that starter home in Massachusetts is still going in the $700,000 range."

Realtor.com factored the level of home-buying demand into their rankings. "The area sees strong buyer demand, competitive market conditions and a snappy market pace," Jones said. "Home shoppers flock to Manchester-Nashua in search of more bang for their buck within commuting distance from nearby Boston."

Other 'hot' housing markets this summer

Over 500 miles away, Ohio's Canton-Massillon metro area took the second spot, followed by Springfield, Mass., and New Haven-Milford, Conn., which took the third and fourth places, respectively, on Realtor.com's top markets list this summer.

Northeast and Midwestern metro areas dominated the top spots in the ranking, which Realtor.com said reflects a "shift towards more attainable housing markets."

Homes in Canton-Massillon were valued at around $211,000, and those in Springfield at about $300,000, according to Zillow data as of June 30.

Here are Realtor.com's top 10 housing markets this summer:

-- Manchester-Nashua, N.H.

-- Canton-Massillon, Ohio

-- Springfield, Mass.

-- Toledo, Ohio

-- New Haven-Milford, Conn.

-- Lansing-East Lansing, Mich.

-- Worcester, Mass.

-- Appleton, Wisc.

-- Rockford, Ill.

-- Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Conn.

Realtor.com is operated by News Corp subsidiary Move Inc.; MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones is also a subsidiary of News Corp.

-Aarthi Swaminathan

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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July 24, 2025 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)

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