Realtor.com & the Wall Street Journal recently released their 3rd Emerging Housing Markets Index which identifies markets they believe will be good areas to purchase a home for both homeowners and investors.  To get their index, they used a slate of housing market, economic vitality, and quality of life metrics to identify emerging housing markets for the largest 300 metropolitan areas in the United States.

"...After a rollercoaster over the past year and a half, the housing market is on better footing and has added approximately $3 trillion in value in the most recent 6 months while one measure of the U.S stock market has surged by more than $5 trillion. U.S. residential real estate is a major store of wealth that is more widely held than stocks. These two factors mean that housing is not only a large and valuable asset class, it has the ability to affect the financial outcomes of a broader swath of individuals and families than the U.S. stock market."

The Top-20 Emerging Housing Markets:

RANK Metro Area 2020 Population
1 Elkhart-Goshen, IN 206,268
2 Rapid City, SD 142,876
3 Topeka, KS 231,862
4 Raleigh, NC 1,392,356
5 Jefferson City, MO 150,973
6 Burlington, NC 169,173
7 Coeur d'Alene, ID 165,656
8 Eureka-Arcata-Fortuna, CA 135,839
9 Johnson City, TN 203,980
10 Huntsville, AL 471,683
11 Colorado Springs, CO 747,337
12 Fort Wayne, IN 412,874
13 Manchester-Nashua, NH 417,738
14 Kennewick-Richland, WA 299,619
15 Decatur, AL 152,481
16 Billings, MT 181,723
17 North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 837,983
18 Waco, TX 274,362
19 Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 645,559
20 Boulder, CO 326,020

Click here to read the full report at Realtor.com.