IRVINE, CA—As Amazon has whittled down more than 200 contenders for its second headquarters campus to a shortlist of 20 cities, the issue has arisen once more of what the e-commerce behemoth's presence in a given metro area would do to that market's housing costs. “No matter which city is chosen, the influx of 50,000 high-paid Amazon workers and 66,250 supplementary workers over a 10-year period will put pressure on local housing markets, driving up rent and home prices,” says Apartment List.

Although the impact would vary among individual metro areas, analyses by CoreLogic and Apartment List point to two general conclusions. Namely, markets where for-sale housing prices are already overheated would feel the Amazon effect most acutely, while on the rental side, the smaller markets are especially susceptible.

As it is, “overheated” is an adjective that CoreLogic would use to describe housing prices in 11 of the 20 metro areas that Amazon has shortlisted. The more technical term would be “overvalued,” which CoreLogic uses to characterize a market in which home prices are at least 10% higher than the long-term, sustainable level.