Zillow research is predicting that Austin, Texas will be America's hottest housing market in 2021, leading a list of mostly Sun Belt cities expected to continue heating up faster than the nation's large coastal markets. 

The booming Texas destination heads a lineup of sunny and relatively affordable metro areas - Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa and Denver - that are most likely to outperform the nation in home value growth, according to a panel of economists and real estate experts recently surveyed by Zillow. 

The Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey asked a large panel of economists, investment strategists and real estate experts for their predictions about the US housing market. The Q4 2020 survey also asked about their expectations for 2021 home value growth in 20 large markets compared to the nation. 

An overwhelming 84% of those surveyed said Austin values would out-perform the national average, compared to just 9% who believe it would fare worse. Phoenix came in second with 69%, followed by Nashville (67%), Tampa (60%), and Denver (56%). Page views on Zillow for-sale listings in Austin by out-of-town searchers were up 87% in November compared to 2019.