15 Cities With the Biggest Home Price Hikes Since 2000

Family moving — fizkes / Shutterstock.com

This story originally appeared on Roofstock.com.

Over the past two decades, cities across the U.S. experienced intense makeovers.

For some residents, such changes have meant rapidly appreciating property values, new jobs and economic growth. For others, the development surge has led to sharp cost-of-living increases in previously affordable areas.

Nationally, wage growth for production and nonsupervisory workers has lagged behind rising home prices since the early 2000s. According to Zillow, median home prices nationwide nearly doubled between 2000 and 2020, while U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that hourly wages have only grown by approximately 75%.

Despite the dip in home prices during the Great Recession, the gap between housing costs and wages has been growing steadily since 2015.

While home prices increased by nearly 100% nationally between 2000 and 2020, some of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas — especially those in California — experienced increases of more than twice that.

To find the American cities that experienced the biggest turnaround in home prices over the past 20 years, researchers from Roofstock, a real estate investing platform, analyzed historical data from real estate website Zillow.

To find the cities experiencing the biggest turnaround in home prices, researchers compared each city’s median home price with that of its parent metropolitan area in both 2000 and 2020.

Only cities whose median home price was below the metro median in 2000 and above the metro median in 2020 were included. Cities were then ordered by their respective percentage change in median home price over the same time period. Additionally, only the largest 1,000 U.S. cities with available data from Zillow were included in the analysis.

While most of the cities that made our list are located in California and the Northeast, there are several outliers located in Colorado, too. Additionally, the list of cities that experienced the biggest turnaround in home prices over the past two decades includes both principal cities — the largest cities in each metropolitan area, such as Denver and Boston — as well as locations that surround them, like Arvada, Colorado, and Quincy, Massachusetts.

Here are the 15 U.S. cities with the biggest turnaround in home prices over the past 20 years.

15. Fort Collins, Colorado

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 121.6%
Median home price (2000): $190,650
Median home price (2020): $422,515
Metropolitan area: Fort Collins, Colorado
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 113.8%

14. Tempe, Arizona

Arizona State University — Thomas Trompeter / Shutterstock.com

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 124.5%
Median home price (2000): $143,185
Median home price (2020): $321,429
Metropolitan area: Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 106.9%

13. Arvada, Colorado

Park in Arvada, Colorado — Colophotos / Shutterstock.com

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 128.9%
Median home price (2000): $200,579
Median home price (2020): $459,102
Metropolitan area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 125.8%

12. Olympia, Washington

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 133.7%
Median home price (2000): $157,717
Median home price (2020): $368,623
Metropolitan area: Olympia-Tumwater, Washington
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 133%

11. Portland, Maine

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 137.4%
Median home price (2000): $144,996
Median home price (2020): $344,163
Metropolitan area: Portland-South Portland, Maine
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 124.9%

10. Denver

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 138.2%
Median home price (2000): $195,043
Median home price (2020): $464,640
Metropolitan area: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 125.8%

9. Pembroke Pines, Florida

Homes in Pembroke Pines Florida — Felix Mizioznikov / Shutterstock.com

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 157.1%
Median home price (2000): $125,894
Median home price (2020): $323,682
Metropolitan area: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Florida
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 143.3%

8. Quincy, Massachusetts

Fore River Bridge in Quincy, Massachusetts — Wangkun Jia / Shutterstock.com

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 159.7%
Median home price (2000): $200,052
Median home price (2020): $519,476
Metropolitan area: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts-New Hampshire
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 112.7%

7. Jersey City, New Jersey

Percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 172.1%
Median home price (2000): $185,187
Median home price (2020): $503,978
Metropolitan area: New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania
Metro percentage change in home price (2000-2020): 111.1%