MADISON, NJ—America's best real estate city has no bridges or tunnels linking it to the continental US. Nor has Tony Bennett ever sung a song about leaving his heart there. Not a single one of America's 100 tallest buildings can be found there, although the place itself is one of the highest-altitude major cities in the US. The city that Coldwell Banker Commercial's newly issued Market Comparison Report for 2014 ranks ahead of all others is Denver, which climbed to the top spot from number 10 last year.

Colorado's largest city earned its number-one ranking on the strength of having the best cumulative score based on five metrics: retail, multifamily, office (specifically, improvements in vacancy and rental rates for each property type), population and unemployment. The Mile High City's record-breaking job growth was a key factor in its ascendancy to the top of the list, along with a multitude of new development projects and economic expansion into the energy, healthcare and technology sectors.

A good analogy for Denver's ranking, and that of the other cities in CBC's top 10 for this year, is the “growth stocks” and “momentum stocks” picked by investment pundits, Fred Schmidt, president and COO of Coldwell Banker Commercial Affiliates, tells GlobeSt.com. “A lot of these cities embody the momentum in terms of two fundamental things: jobs and population. When you overlay those two elements, that's where you're seeing the high growth.”

As for Denver in particular, Schmidt says, “For employment growth in the US, you have four major drivers: energy, medicine, technology and education. Denver has all four of these.”

Denver's energy-sector presence is a factor it shares with two lower-ranking cities in CBC's top 10, Houston and Dallas, and Schmidt notes that “it'll be interesting to see how they're impacted” by the downward trend in the sector due to the falling price of oil. The upside, however, is these markets “are firing on a lot of different pistons. They're not one-business towns.”

One factor uniting all of the markets in CBC's top 10—which also include San Francisco, San Jose, Phoenix, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Austin and Orange County, CA—is that each has a Millennial-age population of 20% or more. In Denver's case, for example, it's 22%.

Phoenix and Las Vegas are new to this year's top 10 list, and Schmidt points out that the rankings are based on percentage growth. Both cities were hit hard by the downturn, especially in the housing market, “and they've come back off the floor in that area of the business. Correspondingly, the growth on the commercial side is starting to manifest itself in those markets.”

This year's roster of top 10 growth markets mainly comes from outside the core cities, a sign that the commercial real estate recovery is broadening. Although the likes of New York City and Los Angeles continue to see healthy growth, “We're seeing more movement in the secondary and tertiary markets,” says Schmidt. “That's actually been reflected in terms of investment behavior. When you see percentage decreases in vacancy and increases in rents, that's all movement toward a healthier real estate market in general, and particularly for these cities.”