They say a good place is hard to find, but if you’re looking to live in one of these 25 metropolitan areas, that may feel like an understatement.
Using data from ATTOM Solutions, we checked which metro areas have the lowest vacancy rates—that is to say, the fewest available residential properties—and ranked them. To make the list more relevant, we didn’t include areas with a population less than 100,000.
Believe it or not, every metro area on this list has a less than one percent vacancy rate. So if you’re a house hunter in one of the following 25 metro areas, we wish you good luck (you’ll need it).
25. Portland-South Portland, ME (0.69% vacancy for residential properties)
24. El Paso, TX (o.65% vacancy for residential properties)
23. San Diego-Carlsbad, CA (0.65% vacancy for residential properties)
Though it has the same percentage of vacancy as El Paso, TX, the San Diego-Carlsbad population is much larger (3,200,000 vs. 800,000), so it ranks twenty-third.
22. Raleigh, NC (0.61% vacancy for residential properties)
21. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (0.59% vacancy for residential properties)
20. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO (0.56% vacancy for residential properties)
19. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD (0.56% vacancy for residential properties)
Despite having the same vacancy rate as number 20, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area has more than twice the number of people (5,900,000 vs. 2,700,000), so it’s higher up on the list.
18. Ogden-Clearfield, UT (0.55% vacancy for residential properties)
17. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (0.54% vacancy for residential properties)
16. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (0.54% vacancy for residential properties)
Though it has the same percentage as the previous pick, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area has a population of more than 13 million, which is almost three times the size of number 17 on the list.
15. York-Hanover, PA (0.53% vacancy for residential properties)
14. Boise City, ID (0.52% vacancy for residential properties)
13. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT (0.48% vacancy for residential properties)
12. Green Bay, WI (0.47% vacancy for residential properties)
11. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA (0.45% vacancy for residential properties)
10. Austin-Round Rock, TX (0.42% vacancy for residential properties)
9. Vallejo-Fairfield, CA (0.39% vacancy for residential properties)
8. Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO (0.39% vacancy for residential properties)
7. Madison, WI (0.39% vacancy for residential properties)
Madison has the same vacancy rate for residential properties as the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro area, but Madison has a higher population, so it took the number-seven spot.
6. Provo-Orem, UT (0.34% vacancy for residential properties)
5. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA (0.34% vacancy for residential properties)
The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area has the same vacancy percentage as the Provo-Orem metro area. However, when it comes to population, the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward has four million more people, so it takes the number-five spot.
4. Manchester-Nashua, NH (0.31% vacancy for residential properties)
3. Lancaster, PA (0.26% vacancy for residential properties)
2. Fort Collins, CO (0.24% vacancy for residential properties)
1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (o.23% vacancy for residential properties)
Is it any surprise Silicon Valley made the number-one spot? If you’re looking for a home in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area, good luck finding anything—less than a quarter of a percent of properties are vacant.
Image: istock
