This Is America’s Hottest Housing Market

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 10, 6:00PM EDT

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This Is America’s Hottest Housing Market — © Feverpitched / iStock via Getty Images

The American housing market has been on fire. Home values in some markets increased by over 30% year over year. As of February, America’s hottest market was Phoenix.

One reason home prices have risen over the past two years is that tens of thousands of people have decided to migrate from America’s large coastal cities to ones inland. San Francisco and New York have home prices that are two or three times the national median price for existing homes, which has risen to a record of over $375,000. (These are 20 most expensive suburbs for home buyers.)

And while new home building has accelerated, supply chain issues have made building materials more expensive, and shortages have delayed completion of many homes that are under construction or in the planning stages.

Another reason for rising prices is the new mobility of many Americans. The COVID-19 pandemic caused companies to shutter offices for safety reasons. Millions of people have worked from home, and some businesses will not make them come back to traditional offices.

One impetus for home buying last year was the near historic low mortgage rates — below 3%. The Federal Reserve’s rate increases mean that those mortgage rates are no longer available, and this may dent demand in 2022. Already, existing home sales dipped in March, the National Association of Realtors reported. (This is the mortgage rate in America every year since 1972.)

The gold standard of home price research is the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, which are issued monthly. The figures for February showed that home prices across the country rose 19.8% from the same month last year. Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, commented, “The National Composite’s 19.8% year-over-year change for February was the third-highest reading in 35 years of history.”

The research also looks at price changes in 20 of America’s largest metro areas. These increases were uneven in February. To find America’s hottest housing market, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed housing prices changes in metro areas from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller’s recent release.

The market with the highest increase was Phoenix, where prices in February climbed 32.9% year over year. It is the 33rd consecutive month in which Phoenix records the highest increase in housing prices. It was followed closely by Tampa, Florida, where prices rose 32.6%, and Miami, which had a 29.7% increase in housing prices year over year.

At the far end of the spectrum, home prices in Washington rose only 11.9% annually.

Click here to see America’s hottest housing market

20. Washington, DC
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 11.9%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 1.7% – #15 highest on list

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19. Minneapolis, MN
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 12.0%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 1.1% – #18 highest on list

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18. New York, NY
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 12.9%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 1.1% – #18 highest on list

17. Chicago, IL
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 13.1%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 1.2% – #17 highest on list

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16. Cleveland, OH
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 13.6%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 0.9% – #20 highest on list

15. Boston, MA
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 14.6%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.1% – #11 highest on list

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14. Detroit, MI
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 14.6%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 1.6% – #16 highest on list

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13. Portland, OR
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 19.0%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.5% – #8 highest on list

12. Los Angeles, CA
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 22.1%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 3.2% – #4 highest on list

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11. Denver, CO
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 22.3%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 3.1% – #5 highest on list

10. San Francisco, CA
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 22.9%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 3.7% – #3 highest on list

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9. Atlanta, GA
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 24.0%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.0% – #13 highest on list

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8. Charlotte, NC
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 25.5%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 1.9% – #14 highest on list

7. Seattle, WA
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 26.6%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 4.4% – #2 highest on list

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6. Las Vegas, NV
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 27.5%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.1% – #11 highest on list

5. Dallas, TX
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 28.8%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.9% – #6 highest on list

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4. San Diego, CA
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 29.1%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 4.5% – #1 highest on list

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3. Miami, FL
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 29.7%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.3% – #9 highest on list

2. Tampa, FL
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 32.6%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.7% – #7 highest on list

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1. Phoenix, AZ
> Pct. increase Feb 2021 to Feb 2022: 32.9%
> Pct. increase Jan 2022 to Feb 2022: 2.2% – #10 highest on list

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.