Buffalo, New York, known for its tumultuous winter weather and beloved namesake chicken wing, will be the hottest major housing market in 2025, according to a new report from Zillow. This is the first time a market has held the title in back-to-back years.
“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,” Zillow chief economist Skylar Olsen said in the report.
“Shoppers nationwide should see more options for sale than in recent years, along with slow and steady price growth. That’s the good news. But both buyers and sellers should expect unpredictable mortgage rates.”
Zillow’s “hotness” ranking of the nation’s 50 most populous metro areas takes into account local home values, the rate that homes are selling, job growth per new home permitted, and expected growth in owner-occupied households.
Sellers in Buffalo held a strong advantage in negotiations there throughout 2024, according to Zillow’s market heat index. Buffalo also has the most new jobs per new home permitted, meaning that an influx of new residents should drive up prices and competition unless builders can meet the additional demand.
With affordability still on buyers’ minds, Buffalo boasts lower-than-average home prices and rents. Colleen Collier, an associate real estate broker with RE/MAX who specializes in the areas around Buffalo and Niagara Falls, said that the median sales price recorded in November 2024 was $250,000 — well below the national median price of $406,100.
“Since 2020, inventory has pretty much been dropping, and more people are rediscovering the area, or what I call bounce back — like they grew up in the area, maybe moved away, and now they’re choosing to come back with the ability to work from home. I think it’s also opened up people to Buffalo that only need one job,” Collier explained.
Collier also said that Buffalo’s proximity to Canada is keeping it attractive.
“I’ve had a lot of clients in the last few years where they have maybe one person in the household that’s Canadian, but they need to live and work in the U.S., but they want to go to visit grandparents in Canada or family members,” she said.
Markets like Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; Indianapolis; and Philadelphia round out the top five hottest markets for 2025. Hartford leads the pack with expected home-price appreciation of 4.2% in 2025, although Zillow said that price growth is set to “largely level out” this year.
Rising fastest in the ranks compared to the hottest markets of 2024. is Virginia Beach, Virginia, which claimed the No. 13 spot this year after being No. 36 last year. Zillow said this trend is driven by job growth that has outpaced permits for new homes. Memphis, Tennessee, on the other hand, fell the furthest, dropping 30 places to No. 43 as new-home permitting has eclipsed slow job growth.
