Nashville's real-estate market bounded ahead of Seattle, Los Angeles, and other major markets as the nation's fifth-surest investment bet for 2019, according to one of the industry's most comprehensive and influential reports.

The study, released Wednesday, promoted Music City from 9th to 5th place among U.S. cities for its hot overall real-estate prospects.

Six other southern cities – most in the southeastern U.S. – also topped the list developed by researchers from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Urban Land Institute in the "Emerging Trends in Real Estate" study.

"It's really a story about affordability, employment growth, population growth and employment stability," said Mitch Roschelle, a PwC partner. "One thing that's really important now is no state income taxes. That's becoming a bigger and bigger factor when people start making choices about where they want to live."

Knoxville and Memphis were also singled out in the 100-page study as attractive markets for investors due to their high quality-of-life advantages and low housing costs.

But Nashville has placed in the nation's top-10 real-estate markets for four consecutive years, suggesting a lucrative market for years to come.

"Nashville isn't a one-hit wonder. It's been in the top ten for some time now," Roschelle said. "So goes Austin and Dallas. It's this resilience of investors' views of those cities that contributes to their success."

The top 10 U.S. real estate markets in 2019:

Dallas/Fort Worth Brooklyn, New York Raleigh/Durham Orlando Nashville Austin Boston Denver Charlotte Tampa/St. Petersburg

Last year, the top cities were: Seattle, Austin, Salt Lake City, Raleigh/Durham, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Jose, Nashville and Boston, respectively.

'Hot place to live'

Nashville's housing costs have jumped more than 70 percent in the past six years, as new residents flooded the city at a rate of about 100 people per day.

The surging prices have shocked residents and rapidly displaced lower-income people outside the city center, creating an affordable-housing crisis.

But the $250,000 median cost of a single-family home in the greater metropolitan area is still just below that of the overall U.S. market.

"It is a hot place to live," Roschelle said. "All the real-estate food groups – office, industrial, retail and multifamily – are good prospects. However, among them, the one that really shines is home-building."

Nashville was named the nation's number-one home-building market in the report.

Investors prize growth

So-called "18-hour cities" like Nashville and Austin have captured investment windfalls in recent years as development costs soared in larger cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the report states.

Investors increasingly prize markets with room to grow affordably – where first-time homebuyers can find a property in a desirable area for a cost about equal to the national average.

"In the last six years or so, we've started to see cities of 2 to 3 million people in the top ten as opposed to cities with 5 million or more," Roschelle said. "In many of the bigger cities there are relatively high barriers to entry. If I were to pick one word to describe what a city like Nashville offers investors that they can't find any other place, I would say: affordability."

The shift comes as the millennial generation that flooded urban cores in the past few decades looks to the suburbs. Meanwhile, the younger generation Z and retiring baby boomers are poised to take over the small downtown apartments that millennials vacate as they buy homes.

"The traditional attractions of the suburbs – larger homes, good schools, and lots of green space – have not changed," the report states. "What is different is that amenities now in demand include access to mass transit and walkable neighborhoods in proximity to shopping and entertainment."

ULI's Nashville chapter will present the report's findings along with presentations from local industry leaders at a Nov. 9 event at J.W. Marriott.

Sandy Mazza can be reached via email at smazza@tennessean.com, by calling 615-726-5962, or on Twitter @SandyMazza.