Home Price Appreciation Comes to Flyover Country

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The U.S. housing market continues to confound. In the latest twist, the swiftest price appreciation has moved to housing markets in the Rust Belt and Midwest. Meanwhile, formerly hot Sun Belt markets are cooling.

Prices in Topeka, Kansas, soared nearly 20% from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025, the National Association of Realtors reports.

Other big gainers:

· Peoria, Illinois: 18.4%

· Champaign-Urbana, Illinois: 17.9%

· Syracuse, New York: 17.9%

· Glen Falls, New York: 16.7%

· Montgomery, Alabama: 16.1%

· Oshkosh, Wisconsin: 15%

· South Bend, Indiana: 13.8%

· Youngstown, Ohio: 13.6%

· Decatur, Illinois: 12.5%

· Toledo, Ohio: 11.1%

· Cleveland: 11.1%

· Rochester, New York: 11.1%

You see the geographic theme: Nearly all of the hottest markets are in places that have experienced decades of weak job growth and tepid population growth.

As a result of weak demand, prices in these markets are low. Even after jumping 19.8% in a year, Topeka’s median price was $220,300…