Local News
Peabody topped the real estate website’s annual ranking, marking the third time the city has landed in the top 10.
The railroad crossing where the South Reading Branch crosses Lowell Street in Peabody Square, Massachusetts. 4300streetcar/Wikimedia Commons
August 11, 2026 | 4:09 PM
2 minutes to read
Peabody has been named Realtor.com’s hottest ZIP code in the country for 2026, marking the second consecutive year a North Shore community has claimed the top spot.
Last year, the accolade went to Beverly. This year, the honor went to Peabody, a city of nearly 56,000 people about 20 miles north of Boston. It’s the third time Peabody has appeared on Realtor.com’s list, following top-10 finishes in 2018 and 2021.
The Northeast and Midwest dominated this year’s rankings. Montclair and Sewell, New Jersey, ranked second and third, respectively, followed by Fairport, New York, in fourth and Westfield, Massachusetts, in fifth. The remaining top 10 ZIP codes were in Livonia, Michigan; Lititz, Pennsylvania; North Haven, Connecticut; New Berlin, Wisconsin; and Wheaton, Illinois.
Realtor.com’s annual ranking, published Monday, measures buyer interest using two factors: market demand, based on the number of unique viewers per property listed for sale; and the pace of the market, based on how many days a typical listing remains active on the site.
Listings in the 10 hottest ZIP codes received between three and 5.3 times more views per property than the national average during the first half of 2026 and sold 30 to 42 days faster than the national norm of 60 days on the market, according to Realtor.com. The site declined to provide the national average number of property page views.
Peabody stood out on both measures. Listings in the city received 4.1 times the national average number of views and spent a median of just 20 days on the market during the first half of the year.
The city’s median listing price reached $667,000 in June — more than $230,000 above the national average, but still below the Boston metro median listing price of $825,000. Homes in Peabody sold for an average of 0.07% below asking price, compared with 2.3% below asking nationally.
“Its mix of livability, relative value, and easy commuting distance helped make [Peabody] one of the year’s hottest ZIP codes,” Realtor.com wrote in its report.
Much of the interest in Peabody came from within the Boston area. About 70% of the city’s listing views during the first half of 2026 came from viewers in the Boston metropolitan area, according to Realtor.com.
“Buyers are drawn to Peabody by its highway access to Boston, its North Shore setting, and its blend of small-town character with proximity to a major job center,” the site wrote.
The hottest ZIP codes also tend to sit within commuting distance of major cities. Peabody, for example, is about 20 miles from Boston, while Montclair is about 15 miles from Midtown Manhattan and Sewell is roughly 20 miles from Philadelphia.
Who is buying in Peabody?
The median household income in the ZIP code was $101,454, according to Realtor.com. The typical buyer put down about 14%, or roughly $89,000, and had a median FICO score was 747 — close to the national median.
Across the 10 hottest ZIP codes, however, buyers generally had stronger financial profiles than buyers nationally. The average down payment was 19.4%, compared with 13.1% nationally, while the median FICO score of 766, compared with 747 nationally.
The list was limited to one ZIP code per metropolitan area.
The top 10 zip codes in 2026, according to Realtor.com:
- Peabody, Massachusetts (01960)
- Montclair, New Jersey (07042)
- Sewell, New Jersey (08080)
- Fairport, New York (14450)
- Westfield, Massachusetts (01085)
- Livonia, Michigan (48154)
- Lititz, Pennsylvania (17543)
- North Haven, Connecticut (06473)
- New Berlin, Wisconsin (53187)
- Wheaton, Illinois (60187)
Annie Jonas is a Community writer at Boston.com. She was previously a local editor at Patch and a freelancer at the Financial Times.
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