Everyone's Moving to Waco?

Everyone's moving to.......Hottest real estate market in U.S. is surprising Bible-toting Texas town

As the spring homebuying season approaches, experts are saying Waco is slated to have the hottest market in the country, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. In surprising news, Houston and Austin-Round Rock don't appear in the top 20.

Analysts at Realtor.com determined the top 20 housing markets by examining the median age of housing inventory in February as well as traffic on the site. Realtor.com’s chief economist Jonathan Smoke says based on this data, these two Texas markets are primed to lead the pack.

Active Waco listings on Realtor.com are viewed, on average, 335 times — the highest in the country. Dallas comes in second, at 219 pageviews per active listing. To put that in perspective, the national average is 73 pageviews per active listing. No other Texas market made the top 20.

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, Waco, the home of Baylor University, has a population of just over 129,000. The metro area totals just under 260,000 and is rapidly growing.

The median age of housing inventory in Dallas-Fort Worth is 62 days. That’s the best in Texas — and 41 days shorter than the national average of 103. Although Waco doesn’t appear in the top 20 on that list, it earns the title as hottest projected market because of online activity.

Smoke says both metrics indicate that buyers are gearing up to hit a market that sellers are taking advantage of. “It’s a good measure that supply is getting tighter when you see that the age is getting lower, then demand is increasing faster than supply,” he says. “It’s a two-edged sword. It’s great if you’re an existing homeowner or seller, but it’s what’s behind prices accelerating and declines in affordability.”

The supply issue is affected by an inventory that shrank 30 percent between January 2014 and January 2015, as there were 16,000 homes available for sale in the area at the beginning of 2015. “It is tight,” Smoke says. “It’s an issue broadly across the U.S.”

Smoke says that there is relief for buyers on the horizon, because February’s inventory is expected to be up from January when the full numbers come in later this month.

“Typically you see an inventory increase this time of year,” he says. “Warmer markets get prepared for the spring selling season. There’ll be a large number of listings in March; the market is reacting, and inventory is increasing."

Here is the complete list of Realtor.com’s 20 hottest markets right now:

Waco, Texas
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
Santa Rosa, California
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado
Vallejo-Fairfield, California
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California
Charleston, West Virginia
San Luis Obispo et al, California
Columbus, Ohio
Boulder, Colorado
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan
Hartford-West Hartford et al, Connecticut
Manchester-Nashua, New Hampshire
San Francisco-Oakland et al, California
San Diego-Carlsbad, California
Charleston-North Charleston, South Carolina
Toledo, Ohio
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Maine/New Hampshire

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CultureMap editor-in-chief Clifford Pugh contributed to this article.

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THE AMERICAN DREAM

How long it takes to save for a home down payment in Houston

iStock

Houstonians don't have to save long to afford a down payment.

Saving for a down payment remains one of the biggest barriers to homeownership nationwide, but a new report from Realtor.com shows San Antonio area buyers face a far shorter wait than most Americans.

According to the real estate site’s 2025 analysis, the typical U.S. household needs seven years to save for a standard down payment, a notable improvement from the 12-year peak in 2022. Still, the timeline remains roughly double the pre-pandemic norm, reflecting higher home prices, larger down payments, and lower household savings rates.

Houston, however, stood out as one of the most accessible major metros in the nation. The Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro boasted one of the shortest time sto save for a down payment among the nation’s 50 largest markets, with households needing just 3.5 years to reach a typical down payment, according to the study.

The report found that Houston’s median down payment from January through November was $14,927. A median household income of $83,452 was estimated to produce an annual savings of $4,228. Notably, San Antonio, the only other Texas city included in the report, had the shortest time to save for a down payment at just 1.3 years.

Nationally, the time needed to save has shortened as home price growth cooled and affordability modestly improved. Still, saving for a down payment takes significantly longer than it did before the pandemic.

“Higher home prices and intensified competition have pushed typical down payments higher, at the same time that inflation and rising household expenses have reduced savings rates,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a release. “Although conditions have improved since 2022, today’s timeline shows that saving for a home takes meaningfully longer than it did before the pandemic, especially in high-cost markets.”

Lower savings rates have played a key role. The U.S. personal savings rate has averaged 5.1 percent of income so far in 2025, down from the pre-pandemic norm of 6.5 percent, limiting how quickly households can build funds for upfront housing costs. Meanwhile, the typical down payment has more than doubled over the past six years — rising from about $13,900 in the third quarter of 2019 to $30,400 in the third quarter of 2025.

In high-cost coastal metros, the impact is far more severe. Saving for a down payment can take 20 to more than 35 years in California cities like San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego, effectively sidelining many first-time and moderate-income buyers.

“In high-cost markets, the typical down payment alone exceeds a full year of household income,” said Hannah Jones, Realtor.com senior economic research analyst. “That reality makes homeownership feel unattainable for many buyers, particularly younger households trying to enter the market for the first time.”

Despite those challenges, the report notes that roughly three-quarters of Americans still consider homeownership part of the American dream. Realtor.com says easing rents could help first-time buyers save more, while repeat buyers may use accumulated savings to reduce loan balances and manage higher monthly payments.

“Saving consistently, even in small amounts, is a meaningful first step toward homeownership,” Jones said. “In today’s market, building that financial cushion can make a real difference when buyers are ready to act.”

home market economy down payments home ownership real estate