Manchester, Nashua and Concord remain on a list of the nation’s Top 20 Emerging Housing Markets, but the inclusion of real estate taxes notably dropped the cities’ rankings in the second release by the Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com.

Originally Manchester-Nashua, combined as one metropolitan area, and Concord ranked No. 8 and No. 9 respectively in the spring 2021 list. But in the second release, those metropolitan areas were the only ones to drop significantly to No. 17 and No. 18. That is due to the inclusion of real estate taxes, which “boosted the rankings of areas in the South and West and knocked the rankings of markets in the Northeast and Midwest as well as Texas and Alaska,” according to the July 2021 index.

Still, the two metropolitan areas were among the group of just seven that remained on the list, beating out Santa Cruz-Watsonville, Calif.; Madison, Wisc.; Prescott, Ariz.; and other areas that were dropped from the second edition.

Their staying power demonstrated strong economies, defined by the index as having low unemployment rates, shorter commutes and the average median home price of $349,000, compared to the average of $361,900 from all 300 metropolitan areas evaluated.

Manchester-Nashua also received high marks for their dynamic populations, having 11% of residents born abroad when combined, notably higher than 10% of those in Colorado Springs, Co., and not too far behind the 14% of foreign-born residents in Raleigh, N.C.

Another caveat in the report were housing supply challenges, which were experienced in all areas, but particularly in the highly demanded top 20, where “active listings were down 46.6% compared to a year ago, versus a 43.7% decline among all 300 markets.”

— LIISA RAJALA