Real estate portal Zillow predicts that Boston will be one of the hottest housing markets in the country next year.

The company named Boston as one of its "Top 10 Markets For 2014" in a list of prognostications about the future of the housing market it released Thursday. To predict which housing markets will be busiest next year, Zillow relied on data on unemployment rates, population growth and its own home value forecast. Salt Lake City topped the rankings, followed by Seattle and Austin, Texas. Boston squeaked in at No. 10.

Among the other forecasts: U.S. home prices will rise 3 percent next year, homeownership rates will fall to a new low, and mortgage rates will hit 5 percent-though the group also says consumers will find it easier to get a mortgage next year.

"In 2013, home values rose rapidly-about 5 percent nationwide and more than 20 percent in some local markets.  These gains, while beneficial in many ways, were also unsustainable and well above historic norms for healthy, balanced markets," Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, said in a statement. 

In 2014, he suggested, "home value gains will slow down significantly because of higher mortgage rates, more expensive home prices, and more supply created by fewer underwater homeowners and more new construction. For buyers, this is welcome news, especially for those in markets where bidding wars were becoming the norm and bubble-like conditions were starting to emerge."

Zillow also predicts that mortgages will be easier to obtain, despite increasing interest rates. 

"Rising rates means lenders’ refinance business will dwindle, forcing them to compete for buyers by potentially loosening their lending standards," Erin Lantz, Zillow director of mortgages, explained in a statement.