Ranking the hottest housing markets in the Twin Cities

For home sellers in the Twin Cities metro, 2020 couldn't have been better. For buyers, however, last year was a battle. With mortgage rates falling to record lows and a pandemic upending how and where people want to live, sales exceeded new listings throughout much of the metro. Bidding wars were the norm and prices rose to record highs, forcing buyers to several far-flung suburbs that topped the Star Tribune's fifth annual Hot Housing Index, which ranks communities based on the annual change in average market time, sale price, number of sales and percent of original list price received by the seller.

Those metrics, which are based on year-end data provided by the Minneapolis Area Realtors, are combined to determine index score for all communities with more than 70 existing home sales last year.

At the top of this year's list is a market area that includes the town of Stacy and several adjacent communities that are part of the 55079 zip code, which straddles Interstate 35 about 40 miles northeast of downtown.

Use the search tool below to see rankings for the more than 100 cities in the 13-county metro plus historical real estate sales data for those cities and others that didn't have enough sales last year to be included in the index. Historical data is also available for Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods.