California leads pack in hottest housing markets

Five California metro areas were among the top 10 housing markets in June – but if recent trends continue, markets all over the country could be on their way to being the best in years.

California continued to dominate the list of the hottest U.S. housing markets in June – but if recent trends continue, housing markets across the country are on their way to being the best since 2006, according to new data from realtor.com.

The site’s ‘Advance Read on June Trends,’ which looks at residential inventory and demand trends in the first three weeks of the month, shows high demand and a 4% month-over-month increase in supply, seeming to indicate good times ahead for the market.

“Factors lending themselves to the market’s upswing are the psychological effect of recently increased mortgage rates, as well as the specter of the Fed raising interest rates later this year,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at realtor.com. “Although demand has been strong all year, in June we’re finally beginning to see an uptick in supply as sellers become more confident about home prices.”

The state of California led the way for the hottest U.S. housing markets in June, taking five of the top 10 spots. It was the only state with more than one metro area appearing in the top 10.

Top 10 U.S. housing markets
  1. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
  2. Vallejo-Fairfield, CA
  3. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO
  4. Santa Rosa, CA
  5. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
  6. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
  7. Ann Arbor, MI
  8. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
  9. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
  10. Santa Cruz-Watsonville-CA