Pack Your Bags, We’re Headed to South Dakota

Get ready to work-in some new locations for your aspirational Zillow searches, because the most-recent WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index just dropped.

For those unfamiliar, the index identifies the top metro areas for homebuyers seeking an appreciating housing market and appealing lifestyle amenities – or in other words, the places that give off a “not super boujee yet but will be soon” kinda vibe.

🏆 The top five:

1. Rapid City, South Dakota
2. Santa Cruz/Watsonville, California
3. North Port/Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida
4. Santa Rosa, California
5. Naples/Immokalee/Marco Island, Florida

🤔 One interesting thing: The top 20 cities in the ranking have an average population size of about 600,000.

🏠 Zoom out: Pending home sales, a leading indicator of health for the housing market, declined for the fifth straight month in March. Per Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors’ chief economist, “The falling contract signings are implying that multiple offers will soon dissipate and be replaced by much calmer and normalized market conditions.”

• “As it stands, the sudden large gains in mortgage rates have reduced the pool of eligible homebuyers, and that has consequently lowered buying activity.”