South and Central Florida named among hottest housing markets for 2025

Home sales in NE Florida are a bit sluggish.

Two Florida regions landed in a top 10 list of hot housing markets in the U.S. for 2025.

Realtor.com, a home sales website and realty company, selected the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area as the second-hottest housing market heading into the new year. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford came in sixth on the list.

Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Texas all had two regions each on the list. Sun Belt states dominated the top 10 with the exception of one spot. Colorado Springs, Colorado, was ranked first.

Analysts said the Sun Belt is simply moving in the right direction compared to other areas of the country that are seeing more stubborn housing sales.

“The top 10 markets for 2025 are exclusively in the South and West, with multiple markets from three states — Texas (No. 4 El Paso and No. 7 McAllen), Florida (No. 2 Miami and No. 6 Orlando), and Virginia (No. 3 Virginia Beach and No. 5 Richmond) — rising to the top of the list,” the report said.

“Other states with markets in the top 10 include Colorado (No. 1 Colorado Springs), Arizona (No. 8 Phoenix), Georgia (No. 9 Atlanta), and North Carolina (No. 10 Greensboro).”

Realtor.com analysts ranked the 100 largest metro housing markets based on expected sales and price growth rates to generate the report.

“Going beyond the technicalities, however, shows us a correlation between the 2025 percentage increase in home sales across these markets and the 2025 home sales forecast relative to a market’s 2017-19 home sales average,” the analysts concluded.

“In simpler words, the markets we’re forecasting to lead the country in home sales in 2025 are markets that have better recovered to their pre-COVID-19 levels of home sales, and we expect them to hold that momentum in the year ahead.”

While the housing projections for the three South Florida counties of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade are promising, those areas have struggled in housing sales this year.

The Elliman Report, which analyzes regional housing sales in several states, found South Florida has seen stubborn sales for most of 2024.

All three South Florida counties were sluggish in year-over-year home sales to close out the Fall sales period in November. Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties all showed declines in home sales compared to November 2023.

Broward County saw the most dramatic decrease in home sales last month. Broward’s single-family closed contracts on houses plunged 38.1% compared to a year ago.

Palm Beach County fared a little better than its neighbor to the south but still saw a decrease in home sales for November. Palm Beach had a 5.3% drop in home sales in the year-over-year comparison. The Elliman Report stated that Palm Beach has seen year-over-year declines in home sales nine times since 2023.

Miami-Dade County had the least significant housing sale decline, with a 3.9% drop year-over-year in November.