Pardon Me Pops, is that the Chattanooga You Knew?

People have different reasons for wanting to buy a home in a certain city or town, or even as specific as a community or a neighborhood.

Maybe they want to live close to where they work, so they can have a short commute. Maybe they want to live nearby family and friends. Maybe it has to do with schools for their kids or for those without children, maybe the attraction of entertainment and lifestyle plays a part.

Or maybe folks just want to find somewhere affordable.

Whatever the reason, finding the right place to live is important for a would-be homeowner, but it’s also not the easiest task.

Home prices and mortgage rates are expected to rise this year and the available housing supply within a buyer’s parameters may shrink.

But some markets are better than others. Realtor.com recently released their hottest markets list for 2019.

Coming in at No. 4 is Chattanooga, which had remade itself over the past decade or so into a vibrant city attracting a younger, hipper generation into its environs.

Economists for the website continuously track home prices, availability and how quickly homes will sell. To make this list, they combine that data with markets that are hotbeds for job growth, are experiencing an influx of new construction and are flush with millennials – the generation making up a majority of buyers in the U.S.

Though Lakeland, Fla., Grand Rapids Mich. and El Paso, Texas ranked ahead of Chattanooga, this up and coming Tennessee city that has a lot of momentum.

Chattanooga continues to expand its downtown with new restaurants and amenities, such as the popular Chattanooga Film Festival.

It has a lively nightlife scene, which is attractive to millennials – whether they are looking for a place to dance or a place to chill.

Although Chattanooga still maintains a small town feel in many places, it has also been reshaped by the tech boom. It houses the fastest internet broadband in the country and has attracted tech businesses both of the homegrown variety (like Bellhops) and outside companies (like Carbon Five) which are making Chatanooga their new home.

It has easy access to lakes and mountains for those that love the outdoors and still maintains weekly farmer’s markets and a wide assortment of small-town mom-and-pop shops that give it a traditional look and feel.

Chattanooga also offers a diverse cross-section of neighborhoods, with more than 40 unique and welcoming neighborhoods. It’s also an especially affordable city with an average median home price of $161,595, nearly $100,000 below the national average.

What makes Chattanooga’s affordable prices so attractive is that new construction can also be purchased for such reasonable prices.

Rounding out the Top 10 list of housing markets in 2019 are Phoenix, Ariz. (No. 5), Bridgeport, Conn. (No. 6), Las Vegas, Nev. (No. 7), Boise, Idaho (No. 8), Miami, Fla. (No. 9) and Boston, Mass. (No. 10).