A new study of home prices in America’s 100 largest cities found that prices doubled every 10 years on average. This rapid pace may have occurred recently because many people relocated during the COVID-19 pandemic, driving up home prices in some popular markets. In the first seven years of the period, 30-year fixed-price mortgages carried rates of 3% or less, which drove a home-buying frenzy.

Home prices doubled in the past decade in 68 of the nation’s 100 largest cities. In one, Detroit, the doubling took place in less than five years.

Detroit also holds the distinction of having incredibly low home prices. According to Point2homes, “At the start of 2019, you could buy a home in Detroit for $40,000 — yes, really.” Detroit is among the most impoverished cities in the country. It has lost half its population since 1960.

The cities where home prices have doubled fastest fall into one of two categories. They are either poor demographically or have had massive influxes of people that have driven their populations higher recently.

Among the fast-growing cities are Tampa and Miami, where prices have doubled in six years. Prices doubled in 6.2 years in Scottsdale and 6.8 years in Phoenix. (The cheapest and most expensive housing markets in Florida may surprise you.)

Among the poorest cities, Baltimore had the fastest rate of home price growth at 6.1 years, Buffalo at 6.4 years, and Cleveland at 6.9 years.

The city where the doubling took the longest is far from the Continental United States. It took 21.1 years for home prices to double in Anchorage, Alaska.

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