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These are the 10 hottest ZIP codes for homebuyers in the U.S. right now

Home shoppers are paying more for space and a manageable commute. Realtor.com ranked the 10 ZIP codes where that trade is winning out

Matt Donders / Unsplash

Buyers navigating the current housing market are weighing more than price alone. Even as elevated mortgage rates and softer prices have handed house hunters more leverage across much of the country, a stubborn slice of the market keeps moving fast, and older, established suburbs within a short drive of a major job center are driving that pace, not new construction or a big-city downtown. Buyers in those suburbs are willing to pay above the going rate and skip the negotiating room they'd get almost everywhere else.

The national supply of homes for sale sat 11.3% under its pre-pandemic level as of June, but in the suburbs pulling this kind of demand, that shortfall widens past 60%, more than five times the national gap. That scarcity shows up in what buyers accept to compete. Homes typically sell a few percentage points under asking price nationwide, while in these pockets, sales routinely close at or above list. The properties themselves run older too, with a median build year around 1970, about a decade older than a typical listing, and larger, at roughly 2,000 square feet against a national median closer to 1,800. Buyers are also bringing more capital to the table, with average down payments and credit scores that outrun the broader market, a sign this demand rests on real purchasing power rather than speculation.

Realtor.com's 2026 Hottest ZIP Codes report tracked buyer views per listing and days on market across the country from January through June to find the 50 ZIP codes generating the most demand relative to their size, limiting the ranking to one ZIP per area. For the fourth straight year, every entry near the top came from the Northeast or Midwest, regions where new construction has lagged well behind the South and West. Listings in the top 10 alone drew as much as 5.3 times more views than the national average and sold as much as 42 days faster.

Peabody, Massachusetts

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Peabody, Mass., has broken into Realtor.com's list of the country's hottest ZIP codes three separate times since 2018, and this year 01960 claims the No. 1 spot. Homes there sold in a median of just 20 days in the first half of 2026, far faster than the national market, where listings typically linger much longer. Listings in the ZIP drew 4.09 times as many views per property as the U.S. average, and sellers still closed deals modestly above asking price even as home sellers nationwide accepted offers below list.

Peabody sits on Boston's North Shore, a 20-mile trip from the city that's short enough for a daily commute but long enough to keep a small-town feel and easy highway access. Most of that demand is homegrown. Seven of every 10 views on Peabody listings came from within the Boston area itself, rather than from buyers relocating in from somewhere else. The typical home there listed for $600,000, and buyers financed those purchases with a 14% down payment and a median credit score of 747, both close to the national norm.

That combination points to a market where the math works for a typical well-qualified buyer rather than one propped up by an unusually deep-pocketed pool of shoppers. Peabody first cracked the list in 2018 at No. 5, returned in 2021 at No. 3 and has now climbed to the top spot, tracking the pull these older Boston-area suburbs have exerted on buyers for the better part of a decade. Rather than a sudden spike, this reflects years of consistent outperformance, with 2026 simply the year Peabody finally topped the list outright. Its 747 median credit score sits below the 766 average across this year's full top 10, and its 14% down payment trails the group's 17.1% average as well, yet the ZIP still generated enough views and speed of sale to outrank ZIPs with far stronger buyer profiles, including Montclair, N.J. That gap between financial firepower and market performance suggests location and housing stock are doing more work in Peabody than buyer wealth alone, setting it apart from pricier entries elsewhere on this year's list.

Montclair, New Jersey

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No ZIP among this year's top 10 costs more than Montclair, N.J., where the median listing price reached $1,050,000 in the first half of 2026. That price tag didn't slow anyone down. Homes in 07042 sold in a median of just 18 days, the fastest pace in the top 10, and buyers there paid 16.7% over asking on average, the steepest premium on the list. Listings drew 3.3 times as many views per property as the U.S. norm, most of it, 74.6%, from house hunters already living in the New York area rather than from outside transplants.

Part of what buyers are paying for is size. Montclair's typical listing measured 2,625 square feet this year, well above the roughly 2,000-square-foot median across the entire top 10, and 85.6% bigger than what a typical buyer finds elsewhere in the surrounding New York area. That premium comes with a real affordability strain. Local median household income in Montclair runs 31.1% behind what's needed to buy the typical home there at a 20% down payment and prevailing mortgage rates, the widest gap of any ZIP on the list and a signal that today's buyers there are outearning the town's longer-tenured residents rather than representing them.

Those buyers are showing up prepared to close that gap with cash. Montclair buyers put down 22.1% on average, over $318,000 on the typical purchase there, and carried a median........

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