10 Affordable Cities Poised To Become Million-Dollar Markets in a Decade

Home prices in some pockets of the country are rising—and certain areas where properties are affordable now are poised to break the six-figure ceiling.

Most of the markets that have the potential to become million-dollar markets are in the West and Midwest and, unsurprisingly, they’re in close proximity to bigger, more expensive metros.

To determine where these markets are, Realtor.com® economists examined sales price growth America’s 100 largest metros between 2014 and 2019 (a five-year stretch that skirts jarring anomalies such as the recession and pandemic). The team then applied that same growth trajectory from 2023 to 2028 to project where home prices will be in five years and then to 2033 to gauge where prices will go in the next 10 years.

For instance, if you bought a house in Boise City, ID, in 2023, that would have typically cost a median of $464,578. Yet with a five-year price growth rate of 58.2%, homes here are slated to be worth $735,026 in 2028. By 2023, that estimate skyrockets even further to $1,162,910.

What future million-dollar markets have in common

So what tips certain modest markets into the million-dollar club? One trend is that they’re often situated near other already-expensive markets.

For instance, Stockton, CA, is two hours inland from San Francisco. Although the 2023 median listing price for homes in Stockton is $579,292, by 2033 that number is predicted to climb to $1,446,731.

“As the prices increase and price folks out of the immediate San Francisco Bay Area, people will venture further out into the Valley,” says Corcoran Icon Properties global real estate advisor Nicole Brown. “Stockton is a great location positioned between the metros of San Francisco and Sacramento. Folks can commute to either metro for their jobs.”

The West and Midwest dominate this list, whereas in the Sun Belt region there is a lot more acreage for homes to be built.

“Even though the Sun Belt is growing fast, there’s still a lot of land and cheaper housing,” says Yancy Forsythe, owner of Missouri Valley Homes in Carrollton, MO. “This helps keep home prices lower for now. The availability of land makes it easier to build new homes, which keeps prices from jumping too high.”

High buyer demand is also a factor.

“Various popular markets such as Boise have seen substantial price growth in recent years as buyer demand put pressure on inventory, leading to climbing prices and competitions,” says Realtor.com economist Hannah Jones. “If these trends continue, prices could exceed $1 million in the next decade in some markets that are currently relatively affordable.”

Of course, no one can promise that this is where the markets will end up—plenty of forces could alter this trajectory.

“If the local economy shifts, demand could fall and prices may not keep up with recent growth,” Jones says. “On the supply side, home construction could pick up, taking some pressure off of inventory, which would allow for slower price growth.”

Below are the top 10 markets inching toward the million-dollar mark, and their growth projections.