Texas, California Dominate Spring’s Hottest Markets List

Spring is only two weeks away, and Realtor.com is jumping the gun with its list of the hottest areas that will heat up the post-winter housing markets.

A pair of Texas markets—Waco and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro region—lead the top 10 slots on the list, with California taking up four of the remaining eight levels (Santa Rosa in third, Vallejo-Fairfield in fifth, Santa Maria-Santa Barbara in ninth and San Luis Obispo in 10th). Also in the top 10 are Denver-Aurora-Lakewood (fourth), Ann Arbor, Mich. (sixth), Fort Wayne, Ind. (seventh) and Charleston, W.Va. (ninth).

“The biggest macro trend is that we’re finally seeing inventory grow,” said Jonathan Smoke, Realtor.com’s chief economist. “And that really is big—tight supply coupled with growing demand has driven up prices in previous months. In February, though, there were significantly more homes for sale than one year before. This is a very important trend for many reasons—in particular, because it will help keep prices at a more moderate level down the road.

Smoke added that more home are now being listed because homeowners have been encouraged by rising prices, but he predicted that will level out once supply meets demand.