McKinney, Texas, has claimed the top spot in WalletHub’s 2025 rankings of the best real estate markets in the U.S., followed by Cary, North Carolina, and Irvine, California.
Why It Matters
The report compared 300 cities across 17 metrics tied to housing-market health and the broader economic environment.
Released by personal finance website WalletHub, it examined a range of factors including home-price appreciation, job growth, foreclosure rates, affordability, and the age of housing stock.
What To Know
McKinney, ranking first on the list, owed much of its top ranking to a rapidly growing housing supply and job market. The city has the second-highest share of homes built between 2010 and 2023—about 38 percent—which means new buyers have a lot of options for houses that may not need major maintenance for some time. There are also plenty of new housing options in the pipeline as it also has the third-highest number of building permits per capita, WalletHub said. Its job growth rate, nearing 21 percent annually, ranked 11th nationwide.
While McKinney is not the most affordable market by home-price-to-income ratios, it balances costs with economic advantages. Its median home price is about 365 percent of the median income—placing it as the 74th cheapest of the 300 cities analyzed—but maintenance, telephone, and energy costs in the city are among the 40 lowest in the nation, the report noted.
Cary, North Carolina, which ranked second overall, benefits from some of the lowest living costs among the towns and cities studied. It ranked fourth-lowest in home energy costs, fifth-lowest in maintenance and phone expenses, and boasted low foreclosure and mortgage delinquency rates. While initial home purchases can be relatively expensive, Cary’s home values are expected to grow, with a 0.1 percent annual appreciation forecast placing it 45th nationwide, according to the report.
Irvine, California, ranked third overall. Nearly 32 percent of its homes were built between 2010 and 2023, and it has some of the lowest mortgage delinquency rates in the country, WalletHub found. Irvine is also one of the most financially stable markets, with residents holding the 16th-highest median credit scores among the cities surveyed.
The top 10 locations in the report were:
- McKinney, Texas
- Cary, North Carolina
- Irvine, California
- Durham, North Carolina
- Richardson, Texas
- Frisco, Texas
- Gilbert, Arizona
- Nashville, Tennessee,
- Denton, Texas
- Allen, Texas
What People Are Saying
WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo told Newsweek: “Texas stands out in this year’s rankings because many of its cities combine rapid job growth with strong housing development, creating markets that are both dynamic and resilient. Places like McKinney, Frisco, Denton, Richardson and Allen are all seeing major population inflows, new housing construction, and some of the fastest employment growth rates in the nation.
“This combination gives buyers access to newer homes and healthy prospective long-term value while maintaining relatively low delinquency and foreclosure rates. In other words, Texas cities offer the right mix of economic opportunity and housing supply, which makes them particularly attractive to both homebuyers and investors.”
Lupo said in the report: “Current home prices are extremely important, but there’s much more that you need to look at when determining the health of a city’s real estate market. Factors like the cost of living, the potential for the value of homes to increase, the availability of recently-built homes and the quality of the city’s job market are all important to consider in conjunction with asking prices and interest rates. The best cities may not always be the cheapest, but they offer excellent housing options and long-term stability.”
What Happens Next
WalletHub releases its “Best Real Estate Markets” report annually.