Fort Collins, Colo., is the best place to live in 2020, according to new rankings from Livability.com.

Each year, Livability.com ranks the 100 best places to live in America based on an analysis of more than 1,000 small to midsized cities on characteristics such as affordability, safety, economic stability, outdoor recreation, accessibility, and community engagement. This year’s survey also weighed an “opportunity score,” reflecting the city’s job offerings, economic resilience, and growth.

The following are Livability’s top 10 places to live in 2020:

1. Fort Collins, Colo. (median home list price: $470,000)
2. Ann Arbor, Mich. (median home list price: $473,000)
3. Madison, Wis. (median home list price: $330,000)
4. Portland, Maine (median home list price: $508,000)
5. Rochester, N.Y. (median home list price: $147,000)
6. Asheville, N.C. (median home list price: $508,000)
7. Overland Park, Kan. (median home list price: $550,000)
8. Fargo, N.D. (median home list price: $268,000)
9. Durham, N.C. (median home list price: $369,000)
10. Sioux Falls, S.D. (median home list price: $250,000)

See if your city made the list: View the full list of top 100 cities for 2020.

Home prices have hit a record-high growth of 12.9% over the last year. Yet the higher prices aren’t scaring buyers. Homes are still selling quickly—nearly two weeks faster than they did last year.

The U.S. median home price remained near its summer peak of $350,000 during the first week of October and has shown no signs of cooling, according to realtor.com®’s Weekly Housing Report, reflecting the week ending Oct. 3.

“While buyers would normally begin to hunker down this time of year, we expect to see an unusually high number remain in the market this fall,” says Danielle Hale, realtor.com®’s chief economist. “This gives sellers a rare opportunity to get top dollar for their home outside of the prime selling season, which may be motivating some to stay in the market. However, even with record-breaking prices, we’re not seeing sellers rush into the market with the same eagerness as buyers. Looking forward, a key question is whether this frenzied demand will continue into the spring or if we’ll see more balance between home buyers and sellers.”

Typically, during the fall months, sellers tend to lower their prices to entice a smaller pool of buyers. This year has bucked that trend, realtor.com® notes.

Inventories remain tight. The number of homes on the market has plunged 38% compared to last year. Sellers remain reluctant to list their homes.

@ realtor.com

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New homes are being built on smaller lots. The median lot size for single-family homes that sold in 2019 dropped to 0.188 of an acre (or 8,177 square feet)—the smallest on record, according to Census Bureau data recently analyzed by the National Association of Home Builders.

Regional differences persist. For example, the median lot size in New England is three times as large as the national median. “New England is known for strict local zoning regulations that often require very low densities,” says Natalia Siniavskaia, assistant vice president for housing policy research at the NAHB, on the association’s Eye on Housing blog. “Therefore, it is not surprising that single-family detached spec homes started in New England are built on some of the largest lots in the nation, with more than half of the lots exceeding half an acre.”

Meanwhile, the Pacific region—which includes California and Washington—tends to have higher densities, and developed land is scarce. Lots in that area tend to be the smallest in the U.S., with half of the lots smaller than 0.15 acres.

The analysis is limited to single-family detached speculatively built homes. Custom homes built on the owner’s land tend to be on larger lots. The median lot size for custom single-family detached homes started in 2019 is about 1 acre.

Seventy percent of Americans say they are optimistic that major cities will bounce back post-COVID-19, according to findings from a new survey of 1,000 adults nationwide from AceableAgent.com, an online real estate education program.

“Today, the new work-from-home culture is shifting real estate markets, with states like Florida and Texas experiencing an influx in residents,” says Laura Adams, analyst at AceableAgent.com. “While we are optimistic that New York City and other major metropolitan areas will ultimately recover, there will undoubtedly be pandemic aftereffects impacting both cities and suburbs for years to come.”

New York was hit hard by the pandemic, with nearly 20,000 deaths from March to May 2020. New Yorkers are reportedly leaving the city for the suburbs and rural communities.

Nationwide, 37% of Americans said the pandemic has caused them to consider moving. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said that for 2021, they prefer to live in a suburb over a city. But that doesn’t mean they’ll always shun the city. Respondents said they’re putting less emphasis on “proximity to work” and are instead desiring “more living space,” which tends to be more plentiful in the suburbs. Many survey respondents said they’re looking for more square footage, larger outdoor areas, lower population density, and increased affordability, according to the AceableAgent.com study.

But once the pandemic has subsided, housing analysts believe people will want to live in city centers again for the proximity to fine dining, luxury shopping, and nightlife just blocks away. “Real estate experts are optimistic that the economic fallout of the pandemic will not have a severe negative impact on the housing market,” the report notes.

Barclays Capital recently called the death of the city “a myth.” “Despite widely reported speculation about a collapse in demand for urban living—likely spurred by the outsize attention given to New York City and San Francisco—our data suggests that people left urban areas, but at a more modest pace than media reports might suggest,” Ryan Preclaw, a lead author in equity research at Barclays in New York, wrote in a recent report released Sept. 29.

Cities may be underperforming in their housing markets compared to the suburbs in recent months—which is in contrast to recent years, when urban areas outpaced suburbs in home price gains. But Preclaw notes that real estate prices are likely to rise across the board. However, “urban areas are at risk of losing their long stretch of outperformance,” he says.

Some residents who left big cities in the pandemic may not come back, but Preclaw predicts most will. Nevertheless, Barclays estimates that any fleeing of urban areas could bump up housing demand: Up to 500,000 new housing units could be needed even if just up to 2% people permanently relocate from urban areas, the report says.

A sanitizing butler and UV robots are helping to take cleanliness to a new level in the home. Mudrooms are being rebranded as “disinfection rooms,” Forbes.com reports. Homeowners and their guests are using these newly defined spaces to help remove the spread of germs inside their homes.

What does a “disinfection room” contain? Hand sanitizer and hand-washing stations, and some owners are also adding machines that cover your shoes with temporary shoe covers, along with gowns to wear over your clothes. Copper-based metals—including brass—are being used within the design for their self-sterilizing powers. Copper ions are natural antimicrobials that destroy viruses and bacteria. Read more: Why Copper May Become Your Favorite Metal in the Pandemic

Make a Plan With Sellers to Sanitize Listings

Apartment buildings are jumping on the “disinfection” trend to keep residents safer during the pandemic and to help prevent the spread of germs among residents and guests. For example, they’re turning to COVID-19-killing robots—devices that use UV-C lights to kill germs in common areas, such as elevators and package rooms, and even in some personal residences (upon request). The robots can cost about $125,000 each. Also, the UV light must come into contact with the specific surface to kill viruses and bacteria.

The Continuum on South Beach in Miami Beach, Fla., has taken several actions to increase disinfection in its apartment building. For example, it’s offering a sanitizing butler to disinfect beachfront furniture and table surfaces after each use. The butler can disinfect lounge chair cushions using a special sanitizing formula. The Continuum is also requiring residents to book appointments to use its workout facility. Between appointments, staff ensures the gym is disinfected before the next guest arrives. Also, all guests must have their temperature taken at an automated health kiosk before they can enter the building. The building also uses wands that can emit UV-C light for cleaning.

Multifamily buildings are now being built with disinfection in mind. For example, the Legacy Hotel & Residence at Miami Worldcenter—a 55-story, $500 million tower—will include “several touchless technologies, antimicrobial materials, hospital-grade air purification, and filtration systems throughout,” the developer told Forbes.com. It’ll also include a 100,000-square-foot medical center.