AUSTIN, Texas - According to a study published by real estate website Zillow, Austin was the nation’s hottest housing market in the waning months of 2020 and is likely to remain so in 2021.

The study, drawing on input from a panel of economists and real estate experts, anticipates the most desirable markets will mostly be Sun Belt cities. Following Austin, Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa, and Denver make up the top five.

Those markets, Zillow states, will outperform coastal cities including New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, areas where it’s extremely difficult to afford a home.

While the top markets are relatively inexpensive, anyone who’s researched a home purchase in Austin knows doing so is getting increasingly expensive.

The Austin Board of Realtors recently reported a 26.3% increase in the area’s median home price from October 2019 to October 2020. The median price for a home in the Austin region is $365,000. A home located within the city of Austin sits at a median $441,250.

That said, it is still possible to obtain a home in the Austin area and if you already own one, your value is projected to increase. If you’re willing to live a bit further outside the city, Leander, which lies to the north of Austin, for example, has a median home price of $342,000.

“The pandemic has not upended the housing market so much as accelerated trends we saw coming into 2020. These Sun Belt destinations are migration magnets thanks to relatively affordable, family-sized homes, booming economies and sunny weather,” the report states. “Record-low mortgage rates and the increased demand for living space, coupled with a surge of Millennials buying their first homes, will keep the pressure on home prices there for the foreseeable future.”

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