It's Official: Seattle Is the Best City in the Country to Buy Real Estate

Seattle, Washington, is now the best large city in America to to purchase real estate, according to a study by WalletHub. It's not too surprising that the West Coast city has eclipsed some of the country's more prominent metropolises, because Seattle has been on an upward swing for decades now.

In fact, the Emerald City has always been a boomtown. Historically, it was one of the quintessential frontier towns of the 1800s, but today it's experiencing a thoroughly modern renaissance, bolstered by a rapidly growing tech scene and ever-expanding cultural cachet. Home to Microsoft and Amazon, Pike Place, Chihuly Garden and Glass and, yes, Christian Grey, Seattle is having a moment.

Now, it also boasts the nation's hottest real estate market, ranging from sleek urban condos with views of the Sound to quaint Norman-style homes on the fringe of the urban hustle-and-bustle. Home values have shot up 13.5% in the past year, according to Fortune—great news for people already invested in the region.

Despite the rise in price, this still might be the right moment to strike for prospective buyers looking West. WalletHub based their report on a wealth of factors, ranging from foreclosure rates to home value forecasts. Seattle beat out other burgeoning hubs like Nashville, TN and Denver, CO for the top spot.

Of course, there are plenty of other communities earning accolades for their hot real estate markets. Seattle may be the best big city (defined by the report as having 300,000 people or more), but the overall winner was actually the small Texas city of Frisco.

And a few cities, inevitably, wound up at the bottom of the list. Detroit, MI was dubbed the worst big city real estate market of 2017, while two New Jersey cities, Newark and Paterson, finished last for mid- and small-sized cities.