U.S. Top 20 Hottest Housing Markets In December 2015

Regardless if you celebrate Christmas or not, the month of December will always be taken over by the holidays. Witt long lines everywhere, get-togethers, office parties, Christmas lights and decorations, everything else just slows down and grinds to a halt. It's practically the worst time to go job hunting, start a diet, and even more buy or sell a house. And as expected, the residential real estate market has indeed cooled down for the last month of 2015, Realtor reports.

Most major markets have already seen sluggish demand and inventory, but it's not as slow as what was seen in the same time last year.

For the month of December, the median price is at $228,000, which is 1% lower than that of the previous month, while it's a 9% rise compared to the numbers in December of 2014.

The listing inventory is also 7% lower compared to November. While the markets prepare for the incoming year, homes are expected to sit longer on the market, but the movement is still faster than this time in the past year. Houses on an average now sit on the market for 93 days, which is longer than in November but is 7% better than the number from the same time last year.

A team led by realtor.com chief economist, Jonathan Smoke, used the data and analysis and identified the top 20 medium-to-large markets with the fastest movement and highest interest based on listing views on the said website. For two straight months, San Francisco garnered the top spot with its sister Bay Area city, San Jose, coming second.

"While California closed out our latest ranking still firmly in control of the hottest markets, the Midwest and Florida are both seeing substantial improvement," said Smoke. "Pent-up demand and robust economic growth combined with limited supply will keep California tight in 2016, but more markets will challenge them as demand improves elsewhere."

Newbies on the hot list are Tampa, FL; Fort Wayne, IN; and Midlan, TX.

On the whole, the identified hottest markets are 1.4 to 2.9 times more compared to the national average in terms of listing views. The movement is also faster at 29 to 51 days quicker than the rest of the U.S., and a combined average drop of 15% in median age inventory year over year.

Here is Realtor's hot list: