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…