Real Estate Market 2021: Where Homes Are Selling Fast

Real estate market 2021: where homes are selling fast. Housing market predictions highlight the metros that’ll have the greatest sales growth in 2021.

New housing market predictions from Realtor.com anticipate a strong year for buyers and sellers in 2021. This goes hand-in-hand with the strong mortgage market expected in 2021 due to continuing, historically-low interest rates.

An increased number of existing sales and ramped up efforts in single-family new construction may restore some bargaining power for buyers (especially in the second half of the year). Realtor.com expects that homebuyers will continue to benefit from low mortgage rates and while there is huge pent-up demand for homes, home price increases will be much more manageable than the hikes seen in 2020.

While not the outrageous gains in home price valuations sellers enjoyed this year, home prices are still expected to hit new highs (an average of +5.7 percent) and sellers can expect to sell their homes quickly as purchasing power remains healthy.

Realtor.com then made home sales and price growth predictions in 100 U.S. metros showing where homes will be selling fast and for a pretty penny in 2021.

Real Estate Market 2021: Where Homes Are Selling Fast

These are the 20 metro areas where Realtor.com expects to see double-digit home sales growth in 2021:

Metro	2021 Sales Growth % y/y	2021 Price Growth % y/y
Sacramento–Roseville–Arden-Arcade, Calif.	17.20%	7.40%
Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.	14.40%	3.80%
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, N.C.-S.C.	13.80%	5.20%
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colo.	12.50%	5.40%
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif.	12.50%	5.50%
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.	12.40%	5.50%
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Conn.	12.10%	3.40%
Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.	12.10%	3.50%
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nev.	12.00%	5.20%
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla.	11.60%	4.70%
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.	11.40%	7.00%
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas	11.30%	4.40%
San Diego-Carlsbad, Calif.	11.30%	5.50%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.	10.80%	10.80%
El Paso, Texas	10.60%	6.40%
Bakersfield, Calif.	10.50%	3.70%
Columbus, Ohio	10.30%	7.60%
North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.	10.30%	6.60%
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.	10.10%	5.80%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Calif.	10.00%	7.30%
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas	10.00%	3.60%

What most industry observers can agree on is that seasonal buying trends were thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But while the market took a break at the end of the year, 2021 with a strong (but early) spring and summer homebuying season that will wind down in fall and winter. Some home buying trends that emerged during the pandemic, like virtual home viewings and remote work opening up search areas for homebuyers, are expected to continue in the new year.

Realtor.com predicts that the housing market will settle back into a much more normal pattern than the wild swings we saw in 2020 but so much depends on whether the pandemic can be brought under control – so there’s no telling exactly what 2021 has in store for the real estate market. While vaccines should become available in the next few months, it remains to be seen how the economic fallout combined with growing unemployment and the expiration of government-funded COVID-19 relief programs like the CARES Act plays out.