Most potential homeowners in search of a new residential property seem to desire Mickey Mouse and Harry Potter as their nearby neighbors, according to Realtor.com’s new survey of the most-searched neighborhoods by ZIP Codes during 2014.
ZIP Code 32801 in downtown Orlando was the most-searched neighborhood of the year – a fact that Realtor.com found surprising, considering this is an overwhelmingly renter-driven community, with only 28 percent of the residents identified as homeowners. The median home price for this neighborhood is $276,000.
In second place was ZIP Code 89138, the Summerlin North community within Las Vegas. With median home prices of $380,000 and a 77 percent homeownership rate, it is among Sin City’s most affluent and family-friendly neighborhoods.
In third place was something of a surprise, considering the state of housing in the surrounding area: ZIP Code 70124 in the Lakeview section of New Orleans, where the median home price is $398,000 (nearly double the $200,000 range for the city as a whole) and approximately three-quarters of the residents own their own homes.
Rounding out the top five are ZIP Codes 76109 in Fort Worth and 31401 in Savannah.
“The hyper-local markets on this list demonstrate the wonderful diversity of real estate demand across the country,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Realtor.com, who noted all of the markets had a high number of two-income married couples and most of the home searches in those areas were for homes with a median list price of $400,000, which is nearly double the national median home price of $214,000. “This underscores that we are clearly in recovery mode.”
