This Is the City Where Home Prices Have Soared Most

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 23, 8:30AM EST

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This Is the City Where Home Prices Have Soared Most — © EuToch / Getty Images

Residential real estate prices have risen sharply over the past two years. In some markets, they have increased by 30% in 2021. One reason is that Americans have become more mobile, by choice.

Low interest rates have allowed people to buy homes they could once not afford. Mortgage rates dropped below 3% for 30-year loans, although that number has risen recently. Americans also have left large and expensive coastal cities. While the median price of a home nationwide is approximately $350,000, in like San Francisco and New York the number can be twice that. Inland cities also have lower costs of living in general.

Another catalyst for a more mobile America is the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies shut offices starting in the spring of 2020. Many have not reopened or are set up for a small portion of their workforces. People have worked from home for months, and some companies have said they will allow this arrangement indefinitely.

The gold standard of home price research in the United States is the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices. They are released each month and cover the entire county and the country’s 10 largest and 20 largest cities.
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In December 2021, home prices rose 18.8% nationwide, which was the same rate as in November. Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, commented on the year’s data:

This is the highest calendar year increase in 34 years of data, and substantially ahead of 2020’s 10.4% gain. The 10- and 20-City Composites rose 17.0% and 18.6%, respectively – a record for the 20-City Composite, and the second-best year ever for the 10-City Composite.

Phoenix topped the list with an increase of 32.5% for the period. This was the 31st month it was at the head of the 20 cities measured. Tampa and Miami followed with gains of less than 30%.

These are the December 2021 price increases for the country’s 20 largest cities:

Atlanta (21.9%)
Boston (13.4%)
Charlotte (23.8%)
Chicago (12.2%)
Cleveland (13.3%)
Dallas (26.0%)
Denver (20.3%)
Detroit (14.5%)
Las Vegas (25.5%)
Los Angeles (19.3%)
Miami (27.3%)
Minneapolis (11.4%)
New York (13.6%)
Phoenix (32.5%)
Portland (17.9%)
San Diego (25.9%)
San Francisco (18.8%)
Seattle (23.9%)
Tampa (29.4%)
Washington (10.5%)

Click here to see in which cities buying a home is most expensive.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.