The cost of housing – much like everything else – has gone way up over the past year. Low inventory and low interest rates have thrust the median price of a home in the U.S. up by nearly 20% in a single year.
But this latest jump is just an acceleration of what’s been happening for 20 years – especially in California. Most California cities have seen home prices increase substantially since 2000, with many seeing home values double or even triple.
In some cities, the typical home value has more than tripled. San Francisco, for example, had a typical home value of $356,800 in 2000, according to data analyzed by real estate brokerage Clever. In 2022, the typical home value is nearly $1.4 million – a 290% increase, or nearly quadruple the value 22 years ago.
San Francisco is often held up as the most extreme example of a housing market gone wild, but it’s not the only California city that has seen home values rise astronomically. Clever analyzed the median sale price of homes in the 50 largest metro areas around the country and found 13 cities saw home values more than triple since 2000. The top six cities were all in California.
About two decades ago, the typical home in Riverside or Sacramento was easily valued under $200,000. Now, according to Clever, the median home value in Riverside is $544,000. It’s $583,000 in Sacramento.
San Diego was just a bit more expensive in 2000, with an average home costing $231,000. Fast forward to present day, and that same home might be worth $858,000.
Los Angeles’ median home value in 2000 was around $231,000. That number has jumped to $878,000 in 2022 – a 280% increase.
San Jose’s typical home value went from $437,000 to nearly $1.6 million in the same time period.
The 13 U.S. cities where home values have gone up by more than 200% – i.e. tripled – since 2000 are:
- San Francisco (290% increase)
- Los Angeles (280% increase)
- Riverside, Calif. (278% increase)
- San Diego (275% increase)
- San Jose, Calif. (261% increase)
- Sacramento, Calif. (237% increase)
- Seattle (235% increase)
- Tampa, Fla. (223% increase)
- Miami (220% increase)
- Austin, Texas (209% increase)
- Portland, Ore. (207% increase)
- Phoenix (206% increase)
- Denver (204% increase)
There are several cities around the country that saw much slower growth in home values, according to Clever:
- Cleveland (60% increase)
- Detroit (62% increase)
- Memphis, Tenn. (72% increase)
- Chicago (73% increase)
- Hartford, Conn. (87% increase)
- Cincinnati (88% increase)
- Birmingham, Ala. (90% increase)
- St. Louis (98% increase)
Over the same time period, the national average increased 156% – or increased by roughly 2.5 times – from $127,215 to $325,677, according to Clever’s full report.