Harvard Interactive Chart Illustrates Nationwide Home Price Increases

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ (JCHS) new interactive chart illustrates the unprecedented home price increases this past year by combining data from 100 large metro areas and divisions. The chart displays home price data from 2000 up to 2021’s first quarter. Home prices have continued to rise for more than 100 consecutive months, and these price hikes were not geographically concentrated, says the JCHS. In the first quarter of 2021, home prices increased at least 10% in 85 of the 100 tracked metros. Only five markets experienced 10% or higher increases in the first quarter of 2020.

Home prices rose fastest in the West and in several Texas markets, climbing an astounding 28.2 percent in Boise, 22.7 percent in Austin, and 21.6 percent in Tacoma, all markets with especially strong demand heading into the pandemic (Figure 1). Annual home price growth also exceeded 18 percent in three additional markets: Salt Lake City (18.4 percent), Phoenix (18.4 percent), and El Paso (18.0 percent). But rapid home price growth wasn’t confined to the West and South; among Midwestern markets, home prices rose 17.2 percent in Grand Rapids, 16.1 percent in Wichita, and 15.6 percent in Dayton. In the Northeast, home price growth was fastest in three markets with weaker demand heading into the pandemic: Bridgeport (17.0 percent), Worcester (16.3 percent), and Camden (16.2 percent).

Nominal home prices declined in just one large market across the country: in Honolulu, one of the nation’s highest-cost markets, home prices ticked down 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2021. Home price growth was slowest, but still substantial, in Baton Rouge (6.4 percent), San Francisco (6.5 percent), Little Rock (7.1 percent), and New Orleans (7.9 percent) (Figure 2). Other notable markets with under 10 percent home price growth include New York (9.7 percent), Chicago (9.6 percent), San Jose (9.6 percent), and Houston (9.5 percent). But even in these markets, home prices were rising faster at the beginning of the year compared to the first quarter of 2020. In fact, among the 100 markets, only Honolulu experienced less rapid home price growth in early 2021 compared to a year earlier.

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