Heartland city emerges as top US market where typical home is $200K less than national median

The top housing market in the U.S.this spring season is a heartland hub where the typical home costs an impressive $200,000 less than the national median.Toledo, OH, a city of 265,000 people situated on the western tip of Lake Erie, claimed the No.

1 spot in the latest Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Housing Market Ranking through a winning combination of strong demand, quick market pace, and impressive price growth compared with a year ago. Although a midsized city, Toledo—located about 60 miles from Detroit—attracted outsized attention from homebuyers during the first three months of 2025, climbing two spots in the ranking from the previous quarter. Almost two-thirds of online listing viewers in Toledo were from out of town, highlighting the appeal of this affordable metro, particularly among fellow Midwesterners.

However, house hunters from New York City and Washington, DC, are also taking notice.The typical home in Toledo cost $235,000 in March, nearly $200,000 lower than the national price—and that’s after a 17.5% year-over-year price increase. Given Toledo’s robust demand and affordability, it’s not surprising that homes there were flying off the shelves.In March, the typical residential property in Toledo was purchased within 37 days, or more than two weeks faster than the national median.Predictably, Toledo saw the sharpest increase in home sales profit margins so far this year, according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics.At the start of the new year, the median price of a home sold in Toledo was 44.7% more than the median purchase price for homes sold, up from 27.8% during the same period in 2024.The resulting 16.9 percentage point gain was the largest in the country in the first quarter.Toledo’s other major draw, which it shares with other Midwestern metros, is a lower risk of climate-related disasters compared with coastal areas. A mere 1.5% of properties ...