The country’s hottest real estate markets have changed in 2025

(NEXSTAR) – The real estate game is changing. After years of the market largely favoring sellers, the country as a whole has shifted into “neutral” territory this summer, Zillow found in its updated Market Heat Index. But the nationwide numbers don’t tell the full story. While homes sit on the market for weeks in some cities, they’re going like hotcakes in others. Cities across the Sun Belt – where real estate markets were hot in the peak pandemic years – have started to turn into calmer buyer’s markets. Social Security COLA projected to be slightly higher than 2025’s, but ‘many will be disappointed,’ group says “Places like Texas and Florida were very popular in the beginning of the pandemic, when everyone moved there for outdoor living and that it was affordable,” said Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. “So what happened there, in these markets, was that builders were able to keep up with demand. They knew that people really want to live in these places, they were able to build a lot, and now we have more units available in these areas, along with a softening of demand. And so together, this creates a softer market.” But the opposite is true in the Northeast and California, where seller’s markets remain. Real estate data from July 2025 show which markets favor buyers (in purple) or sellers (yellow and orange). (Map: Zillow) “These are areas that, either because of geography or building restrictions, they have not been able to build to keep up with demand,” Ng said. The northeast in particular, including cities in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, is a region that continues to favor sellers in 2025. In a lot of these older cities, due to geographic constraints, the only place to really build is to build up, Ng explained. A short La Niña is coming soon. What does that mean for weather near you? “Unfortunately, in a lot of places, there are restrictions on building more density, and so you have a situation where you’re not building enough to keep up with demand,” she said, which leads to housing prices going up. Of the cities categorized as “strong seller’s markets,” all but two (San Francisco and Milwaukee) are in the Northeast. The strongest seller’s markets in the U.S. right now, according to Zillow, are: Rochester, New York Syracuse, New York Buffalo, New York Hartford Connecticut Springfield, Massachusetts Albany, New York Bridgeport, Connecticut New York, New York San Francisco, California New Haven, Connecticut Milwaukee, Wisconsin Providence, Rhode Island Meanwhile, inventory has grown in places like Florida, which was a popular destination for movers in the early part of the pandemic. Of the 14 cities identified as “buyer’s markets” by Zillow, nearly half are in Florida. The top buyer’s markets across the U.S. right now are: Miami, Florida North Port, Florida New Orleans, Louisiana Urban Honolulu, Hawaii Deltona, Florida Jacksonville, Florida Austin, Texas Jackson, Mississippi Palm Bay, Florida Tampa, Florida Atlanta, Georgia Knoxville, Tennessee Memphis, Tennessee Durham, North Carolina Many other cities find themselves in a “neutral” market in 2025. You can see the full data and interactive maps from Zillow here.