"Rockford, Illinois - a city of about 150,000, 90 minutes northwest of Chicago - was the most popular place to buy a home in 2025, Zillow found. That's after it was the second-most popular place for homebuyers in 2024. Midsize Midwestern cities dominated the charts: Dearborn, Michigan; Carmel and South Bend, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; and Springfield, Illinois, also made the top 10."
"The most popular places for home shoppers have a few common traits: They're mostly midsize cities; they're relatively affordable, with typical home prices under $350,000; and they're in proximity to lots of jobs. "Affordability has been the defining story of the housing market over the past few years," said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow. "Much of the Midwest was relatively affordable before the pandemic, and remains so after, even as many other markets saw sky-high price growth.""
"Andrew Blevins, 35, told Business Insider's Jacob Zinkula that he and his wife chose to move to Rockford and buy their first home in 2020, after both lost their jobs when the pandemic hit. The rent for their one-bedroom apartment in New York City was about the same as the monthly mortgage payment for their three-bedroom house in Illinois. Blevins is part of a wave of transplants to the Midwest - a trend that's likely to continue, according to Zillow's data."
Rockford, Illinois — a city of about 150,000, 90 minutes northwest of Chicago — ranked as the most popular place to buy a home for 2025. Six of the top ten markets were in the Midwest, including Dearborn, Carmel, South Bend, Toledo, and Springfield. Popularity metrics included online home views, home-value increases, and speed of sales. Common traits are midsize populations, typical home prices under $350,000, and proximity to job centers. Affordability in much of the Midwest persisted through the pandemic, prompting a continued wave of transplants seeking lower housing costs and local amenities.
Read at Business Insider
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]