Once again, the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI metro has come out at the top of the Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com ranking of luxury housing markets. It’s another sign of the revival of a region once better known for decrepit neighborhoods of boarded-up houses than for palatial mansions.
The ranking is designed to identify the highest-performing and most attractive metro areas for luxury home purchases based on eight indicators that fall into two broad categories: the real estate market (60%) and quality of life (40%). It evaluates 30 of the nation’s most populous metros plus 30 markets with the highest concentration of homes listed for $1 million or more. The national listing price for houses in the 90th percentile was $1.24 million in September. It was $1.95 million for houses in the 95th percentile and $5.41 million for houses in the 99th percentile.
In order, the top 10 luxury markets based on these indicators were Detroit, St. Louis, Charlottesville, Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, San Diego, Hilton Head Island, Portland, ME and Santa Maria-Santa Barbara.
In fall 2025, Detroit once again offered the lowest price point for luxury housing, enabling the consumer to purchase a home in the 90th percentile for $721,625. Strong demand meant such a house would stay on the market for a median of 57 days, compared to the national median of 78 days. A house in the 95th percentile would list for just under $1 million and a house in the 99th percentile for $2.84 million.
Half the buyers were from the Detroit metro area. The other half originated primarily in Indianapolis, Washington, DC and New York City, many attracted by the resilient automotive industry as well as newer sectors like technology, health care, and logistics.
The metro also includes a number of zip codes where prices exceed $1 million, including 48009 Birmingham (median listing price $1.48 million), as well as the 48301 and 48306 zip codes. Its value proposition, the report said, was “more house and lifestyle for less money.”
San Diego-Carlsbad, CA, moved into the eighth place in the luxury rankings, though its 90th percentile listing price of $2.89 million fell from $3.5 million in July 2024. Another metro to make the top 10 in September 2025 was Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort in South Carolina, where the price of a 90th percentile listing was $1.8 million. Both coastal metros, the report said, “are synonymous with luxury.”
So is the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara metro, where homes in the top 10% or 90th percentile start at $8.95 million. The metro also hosts some of the nation’s most expensive zip codes, like 93108, Montecito and 93110, Santa Barbara.
The report also awarded honorable mentions in the luxury fields to Atlanta, Chicago, Boulder and Coeur d’Alene, ID.
“Together, these honorable mentions highlight how diverse today’s luxury landscape has become, where high performance is no longer confined to traditional coastal hubs but is increasingly found in regions offering value, space, and quality of life,” it noted.
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