This Boston-area metro remains top affordable home market in US

A New England metro located about an hour north of Boston has retained its title as the nation’s top affordable housing market for the second quarter in a row.Manchester-Nashua, NH, once again clinched the No.1 spot in the Fall 2025 Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Housing Market Ranking, owing to the metro’s strong demand, quick sales pace, and significant price growth compared with last year.“Consistently among the nation’s hottest housing markets, Manchester–Nashua continues to balance desirability with relative value,” says Realtor.com senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones.The quarterly ranking assesses the 200 most populous metros as measured by the U.S.

Census Bureau, weighing real estate demand, housing inventory, median days on the market, median price trends, property taxes, climate risks, unemployment rate, wages, regional price parities, amenities, and other factors that affect the cost of living and quality of life.The goal of the ranking is to help prospective homebuyers identify desirable markets to consider when purchasing a primary residence or investment property. This fall saw the median listing price in Manchester decrease to $575,000 from $599,000 the previous quarter. Despite the notable price reduction, the typical listing in Manchester was still $150,000 above the national median in September, making it the most expensive metro among the top 20 housing markets in the ranking. However, it’s important to remember that in real estate everything is relative—and compared with top-dollar Boston, where the median price last month was $812,000, Manchester looks like a bargain, offering the typical house hunter $237,000 in savings.“High-earning buyers seeking to stretch their dollars further continue to create cross-market housing demand in markets that are close to economic hubs,” says Jones.It should come as no surprise that Manchester—a city of 430,000 people along the banks of the Merrimack River—has cons...