There tends to be a correlation between hot housing markets and strong commercial real estate ones. Retailers and companies want to operate from and near those cities that attract new residents on a steady basis. Multifamily developers also target these hot markets.
A steady housing market, then, is one of the factors that boosts the odds of a city enjoying a high number of commercial real estate sales and leases.
That's why Realtor.com's latest list of the country's hottest residential real estate markets is so important. The hot cities here will usually boast solid commercial real estate markets, too.
So what city does Realtor.com rank as having the hottest housing market in March? It's the Vallejo-Fairfield market of California. Homes on sale here in March had been on the market for a median of just 33 days.
A handful of Midwest cities made Realtor.com's list of hot cities. Homes in the Columbus, Ohio, market had a median inventory age of 46 days, while that number stood at 49 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Homes in the Grand Rapids area of Michigan had been on the market a median of 45 days in March. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, that number was at 48, while it was at a still respectable 51 in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn area of Michigan.
The commercial real estate markets in each of these hot housing markets all have differing strengths and weaknesses. But sales and leasing activity is increasing in each of them. The fact that people are buying homes at a quicker pace in these markets is one reason why.