The Northeast and Midwest have once again claimed all ten spots on Realtor.com's annual hottest ZIP codes list, marking the fourth consecutive year that those two regions have dominated the rankings. The sustained concentration reflects a broader affordability calculation: while Sun Belt and Western markets absorbed the lion's share of pandemic-era price appreciation, many Northeast and Midwest communities still offer entry points that, while higher than historical norms, remain comparatively accessible to earners anchored to major metro wages.

Realtor.com released its 2026 hottest ZIP codes report, a ZIP code-level analysis identifying the most in-demand housing markets in the United States.

Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com, told FOX Business that many of the top-ranked areas share a common geographic profile. "A lot of these ZIP codes fall in suburbs that are on the outer ring of major metro areas like Boston, New York, Philadelphia."

"It kind of paints this picture that you can still commute to the busy city center for your job, but you're taking your big city income where you can get a little more bang for your buck, more space, more of that established suburban quiet life," she said.

Inventory in the communities comprising the top 10 is particularly tight. Jones noted that inventory levels in those areas are running approximately 60% below pre-pandemic levels, compared to a national average where inventories are just 11% below where they stood before the pandemic.

Many home shoppers in these markets are local rather than transplants from other regions. "We're not seeing as much of that cross-country migration type of buyer demand," Jones said, explaining that buyers tend to originate from within the metro areas closest to these ZIP codes. That marks a notable shift from the pandemic years, when remote-work flexibility fueled a surge of relocations from high-cost coastal cities into Sun Belt and Mountain West markets.

The scarcity of available homes is pushing buyers to pay above asking prices. Nine of the top 10 ZIP codes saw homes sell at or above list price, with an average sale-to-list ratio of 103.8%. Nationally, the typical home sold for about 2.3% below its list price during the first half of 2026.

Buyers in the hottest markets are also putting down larger down payments than the national average. "When we're looking at these buyer profiles, we see that they tend to put down a lot as a down payment. Across these 10 top ZIP codes, the typical buyer is putting down about 17% as the down payment, compared to about 13% nationally — and both of those figures are also higher than they were even before the pandemic," Jones explained.

She added that these buyers also tend to have higher credit scores. "We also know they tend to have higher credit scores, and all this is pointing to this idea that today's borrowers have to be more financially equipped and financially ready to participate in today's housing market because with mortgage rates in the mid-to-high 6% range." Those rates, while down from the 2023 peak above 7%, remain roughly double the sub-3% lows of 2020–2021, structurally raising the bar for qualification.

Jones characterized buyers in these markets as individuals who "tend to be very financially able to participate, they have a little bit more money to put down, and they're more financially robust than the typical U.S. buyer."

Realtor.com's rankings are determined by an algorithm that evaluates market demand based on unique viewers per property on the Realtor.com platform, along with the pace of the market as measured by the number of days a listing remains actively listed.

Realtor.com's Hottest ZIP Codes in America for 2026:

1. 01960 — Peabody, Massachusetts
2. 07042 — Montclair, New Jersey
3. 08080 — Sewell, New Jersey
4. 14450 — Fairport, New York
5. 01085 — Westfield, Massachusetts
6. 48154 — Livonia, Michigan
7. 17543 — Lititz, Pennsylvania
8. 06473 — North Haven, Connecticut
9. 53151 — New Berlin, Wisconsin
10. 60187 — Wheaton, Illinois