The hottest real estate ZIP codes

With the housing market soaring in South Florida, some ZIP codes are getting more love than others, according to a new survey.

Out of the 185 ZIP codes in South Florida, those falling in the northern parts of Palm Beach County and in the western parts of Broward County were among the top 10 most popular places for home buyers, according to a ranking from Opendoor, a digital platform for selling residential real estate.

OpenDoor assessed the most popular ZIP codes in South Florida by looking at the number of homes that went under contract in under three months from the day of listing in 2021.

“Areas in western Palm Beach County are benefitting from a northward push, and areas like Palm Beach Gardens are growing the fastest, as the metro area moves farther and farther north,” said Jay Cherry, the Miami general manager of Opendoor.

The site attributed this emerging trend to high housing demand coming up against a lack of available building space in South Florida.

Many of the ZIP codes on the list have a few things in common: more available inventory and slightly more affordable prices, pointed out Patty Da Silva, broker at Green Realty Properties in Cooper City.

And, in the northern areas of the region, where there tends to be more space, many of the newer construction homes are larger in size, something that many prospective homebuyers are looking for.

“The Palm Beach County zip codes have become more popular,” said Da Silva. “We move people up north now. That didn’t happen before. Prices became unaffordable in Dade and Broward so they started moving up north,” she added.

Areas like Miami will always remain popular, since they are more populated and Miami has always been well-known, she said.

Cherry noted that the migration of tech workers to Miami saw a 15% increase from the year before, according to Quartz.

The South Florida housing market has continued to boom over the past two years, due to a combination of out-of-state buyers, low mortgage rates, limited inventory and high demand.

The hottest neighborhood in the entire country was Clarksville, Tennessee, near Nashville, the survey found.

Overall, the market is showing no signs of slowing down, which is forcing many buyers to expand their search criteria.

“There isn’t enough inventory, so these areas that do have it are having more transactions,” Da Silva said.