Home Buying

Zillow named Providence a Top 10 hottest home market. What about Boston?

Buyers are searching for less expensive homes beyond big metropolitan areas.

Providence landed at No. 3 on the list. Which metro took the top spot? Where did Boston land? Adobe Stock

January 10, 2025

3 minutes to read

If you’re looking for metro Boston on Zillow’s Top 10 hottest housing markets list, you won’t find it. The city sits at No. 16.

Unlike last Sunday’s Patriots matchup, count this as a loss to Buffalo, N.Y., which landed at No. 1 in the 2025 rankings Zillow released Tuesday. Smaller metropolitan areas like Buffalo dominated the 50 Hottest Markets of 2025, indicating a push away from the big cities amid climbing prices.

Two New England metros are indicative of the trend: Providence in Rhode Island landed at No. 3, in front of Hartford, Conn.

Zillow determines the list using a variety of factors, the most prominent being forecasted home value growth, projected changes in the labor market, how fast listings are selling, and home construction activity.

These metros made Zillow’s top 20:

2025 RANK	2024 RANK	CITY	2024 ZILLOW HOME VALUE INDEX	2025 HOME VALUE GROWTH FORECAST
1.	1.	Buffalo	$260,537	2.8 %
2.	4.	Indianapolis	$275,639	3.4%
3.	5.	Providence	$484,019	3.7%
4.	19.	Hartford	$363,298	4.2%
5.	11.	Philadelphia	$362,744	2.6%
6.	15.	St. Louis	$250,141	1.9%
7.	7.	Charlotte. N.C.	$377,450	3.2%
8.	18.	Kansas City, Mo.	$299,118	2.7%
9.	20.	Richmond	$368,957	2.9%
10.	28.	Salt Lake City	$543,324	2.3%
11.	2.	Cincinnati	$281,887	2.9%
12.	3.	Columbus, Ohio	$310,746	3.1%
13.	36.	Virginia Beach, Va.	$349,186	2.5%
14.	8.	Cleveland	$228,140	2.8%
15.	25.	Miami	$486,056	4.6%
16.	26.	Boston	$694,494	4.7%
17.	38.	Oklahoma City	$230,466	2.5%
18.	24.	Detroit	$248,126	4.8%
19.	29.	San Diego	$939,174	3.8%
20.	41.	Birmingham, Ala.	$247,509	0.7%

Source: Zillow.com

Boston has a lot to offer — universities, medical institutions, financial markets, and more — but with so many draws, the demand for homes is high, driving up prices. Couple that with a lack of inventory — Greater Boston has nearly 50 percent fewer homes on the market than in 2018-2019, according to Zillow — sellers benefit, and buyers struggle to find properties that fulfill their needs within a reasonable price range.

“It’s your basic supply-and-demand issue,” said Theresa Hatton, CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. “We are in need of 200,000 units of housing by 2030 to meet demand.”

You can see that demand play out in home values. Despite the high costs, Boston still made the top 20. Looking down the list, no metro has a home value index above $500,000 until you get to Boston.

Here are the most expensive metros in the top 50:

2025 RANK	2024 RANK	CITY	2024 ZILLOW HOME VALUE INDEX	2025 HOME VALUE GROWTH FORECAST
48.	42.	San Jose	$1,588,186	-0.2%
49.	30.	San Francisco	$1,140,718	-1.7%
34.	23.	Los Angeles	$949,057	1.7%
19.	29.	San Diego	$939,174	2.5%
32.	32.	Seattle	$362,744	1.9%
16.	26.	Boston	$250,141	2.1%
41.	45.	New York City	$377,450	1.3%
22.	34.	Riverside, Calif.	$299,118	2.4%
44.	48.	Denver	$368,957	0.1%
37.	27.	Sacramento	$543,324	0%

Source: Zillow.com

Many areas at the top of the list, including Providence, are in their respective spots due to their lower-than-average home and rental costs, as well as their relative affordability in comparison to other cities. In the case of Boston, Providence can serve as a less expensive alternative.

“We help many people each year, including people moving from out of state who are looking to move to Boston and swallow hard seeing the prices,” said Chris Whitten, president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors. “Then they take a trip only 45 minutes south down to Providence and see the prices down here, and see that we still have history, the ocean, the shorelines, the restaurants, and similar nightlife vibes. It’s an affordability thing, and it gets Providence on the radar for those looking in the Boston area.”

The average home value in Boston in 2024 was $694,494, with Providence sitting at more than $200,000 less ($484,019), according to Zillow’s Home Value Index.

But Hatton is confident in the future of the metro Boston market.

“We are super hopeful with the rollout of the MBTA Communities [Act] that we are going to see new developments over the next two years that will help alleviate some of the crunch,” she said. “One of the goals of the MBTA Communities [Act] is to encourage development that’s dense enough that [it] allows for developers to build attainable housing units that are less than market rate.”

The MBTA Communities Act, passed in 2021, requires 177 cities and towns in Massachusetts to have “at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right,” and if possible, the district must be within half a mile of public transportation.

Perhaps as we start to see the results of these initiatives, the New England metros will continue to rise in the rankings. This year Boston climbed 10 spots, Hartford jumped 15, and Providence slid up two.