Home-Price Movements in Top 100 Cities since Housing Bubble 1

by Wolf Richter, Wolf Street:

They shot up by far the most in Dallas. Manhattan turned south last year.

Among the 100 largest cities in the US, where did home prices soar the fastest over the past five years since 2012? No, it wasn’t San Francisco or any of the other housing markets where you need to have a top-notch income to buy a starter shack. And in five of these cities, home prices surged over 100% since the fourth quarter of 2012:

The winner (a dubious honor) is Dallas, TX.

From Q4 2012 through Q4 2017, the median home price in the city of Dallas skyrocketed 246%. In other words, during those five years, it multiplied by nearly three-and-a-half times, from $82,300 to $284,600. Since Q1 2008, just past the peak of Housing Bubble 1, prices have shot up 182%. Here are the next four cities in line:

Oakland, CA, is second. The median home price soared 128% in those five years, from $439,000 to $660,000. It is now 50% above the peak of Housing Bubble 1.

West Palm Beach, FL, is third. Its median price, at $200,000, soared 115% over those five years.

Austin, TX, is in fourth place. The median price, at $361,000, has shot up 114% over those five years.

Hialeah, Miami-Dade County, FL, is fifth. The median home price, at $237,500, has jumped 107% in five years.

The data I cite here was provided by ATTOM Data Solutions, the curator of ATTOM, a multi-sourced national property data warehouse. Note that these are the median prices: in each city, 50% of the homes sold for more, and 50% sold for less.

The entities are cities – not metro areas or Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). The exception is New York City which is represented by its boroughs rather than the City as a whole. Also, median-price data is very different from the “sales pair” data used in the Case-Shiller home price index, though over time they move in parallel. Using the Case-Shiller data, here’s my most recent Update on the Splendid Housing Bubbles in US Cities.

The 20 Cities with the fastest 5-year price growth

Below are the 20 cities where home prices have surged the most among the 100 largest cities, starting in 2012. North Texas is represented by four entries on this list – Dallas, Arlington, Plano, and Fort Worth. In 12th place is Stockton, CA, one of the two cities near San Francisco that went bankrupt (2012) after the onset of the Financial Crisis. Since then, the median home price has surged 92% to $250,000. That may sound like a good deal for people who work in San Francisco, but they pay for it with a horrendously long and arduous commute.

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