In the pandemic-driven housing boom that famously peaked around the spring of 2022, the Southern and Western inland markets stretching from North Carolina to Florida, Arizona, and Idaho were the superstars, posting the most sumptuous sudden gains in at least a half-century. But as the high-fliers deflated, it’s been the unglamorous, slow-but-steady stalwarts of the Midwest that have been notching the best record. And Ed Pinto, director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center, predicts that these plodders will probably persist as the nation’s best performing locales in 2024. "Believe it or not, cities like Cleveland, Columbus, and Pittsburgh have more going for them in the near future than a Las Vegas or Phoenix,” says Pinto. “That’s precisely because they’re still relatively affordable, while the price explosion in the Southern tier, at today’s surging interest rates, created a huge barrier for most potential buyers.”
