Find the hottest Twin Cities housing markets of 2017

For the second year in a row, the Star Tribune compared the largest housing markets in the Twin Cities metro area to determine which were the hottest in 2017. The Star Tribune's index combines four key housing metrics from year-end data provided by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors: change in the average price per square foot; average days on market; percent of list price received by sellers, and share of all sales that were foreclosures or short sales. We ranked each community on the four metrics, then added the rankings together to get an index score. The higher the score, the more likely houses in those areas were selling quickly and for nearly the full asking price. (More details are at the bottom of this page.) In the graphics below, explore what's happening in your community. Note: this only includes cities with 100 or more sales in 2016, the first year of our index.

All data comes from MAAR and RMLS of MN, Inc. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Not to be reproduced without MAAR's consent. Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

Numerical rankings were assigned to each community on four metrics, then those rankings were added together to create the final index score. We compared 103 cities that had 100 or more closed sales in 2016, the first year we did this index. Here's how the rankings worked for the four metrics:

1) We calculated the percentage change between the average price per square foot last year and the average across the previous four years. The change between those two numbers was then ranked. A ranking of 1 represented the lowest change, while the highest score was 103.

2) For average days on market, a score of 1 represented the most days on market, while the city with the shortest days on market got the highest score.

3) For the percent of original list price received, the community with the lowest percentage got a score of 1. The highest-scoring communities tended to have an average percentage of list price received at or above 99 percent.

4) The index also factored in the percentage of distressed sales (foreclosures and short sales). In this case, the community received a ranking of 1 if it had the highest percentage of distressed sales. Communities with low percentages of distressed sales got the highest scores.