Key Takeaways
- Over the past 50 years, cities with expanding economies saw the fastest home value gains as people and jobs flocked in.
- High-paying jobs coupled with hurdles that limit homebuilding caused house prices to surge in California, Seattle, Boston, New York, and Denver.
- In Cleveland and Memphis, home values barely grew in 50 years.
How U.S. Home Values Have Transformed Since the 1970s
Realtor.com recently analyzed 50 years of housing data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The data shows home values unsurprisingly rose across all 50 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas from 1975 to 2024. But what stood out were some shocking disparities.
The U.S. housing split is extremely pronounced. In some cities, namely Memphis and Cleveland, prices barely grew at all over the course of 50 years. Conversely, in places like San Jose, property values have risen almost fourfold.
Why the huge divergence? According to Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel, it’s mainly down to the nation’s shift from a manufacturing to a service and information economy. “That evolution impacted different places through their labor and housing markets,” he said. “Some areas were huge winners from that shift, while some got the short end of the stick.”
Why This Matters to You
Where you live or choose to buy can have a bigger impact on your long-term wealth than almost any other financial decision. That said, where home values grew in the past is not necessarily where they’ll grow in the future.
The Cities Where Home Values Surged the Most
Over the past 50 years, many of the biggest home price gains have clustered in California. San Jose led the way by quite some margin, mainly because it’s situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, where many technology companies are based. In this area, and neighboring San Francisco, which took the second spot, high-paying jobs are plentiful. Meanwhile, not enough houses have been built to match demand, due to a combination of geographic limits and zoning hurdles.
It’s a similar story for many of the other places in the top 10. In cities like Seattle, Boston, and New York, there are plenty of decent-paying jobs, but restrictive zoning and land use rules make it difficult to build enough new homes. And when supply can’t keep up with demand, prices inevitably rise.
Interestingly, all of these places also either hug the coast or are, in the case of Denver, close to the mountains. This limits developable land.
The Metros Where Home Values Have Flatlined
While people flocked to places like California, Seattle, Boston, and New York in search of high-paying jobs, other cities, predominantly situated more inland, got left behind. The worst hit were Memphis and Cleveland. In these two cities, home values have risen just 2% in 50 years.
In Cleveland, a hub of the steel and iron industries, the population dwindled after manufacturers moved factories overseas and job opportunities dried up. This same issue also explains the presence of Pittsburgh and Detroit in the bottom 10. Once the engines of the U.S. economy, these cities struggled when the economy shifted.
A lack of well-paying jobs is also a key reason behind Memphis’ stagnant home prices.
A Look at the Past 25 Years
Since 2000, the metropolitan areas that experienced the highest house price rises were Miami, Tampa, and Los Angeles. The lowest gains, meanwhile, were registered in Detroit and Cleveland, where houses fell in value.
See How All 50 Cities Stack Up
Wondering how much house prices in your city have risen over the past 50 years and how that compares to other places? Check out Realtor.com’s full rankings below.
1975-2024 House Price Gains in the 50 Largest U.S. Metros
Metro area*
Total Price Gain (inflation-adjusted)
Return Per Year (inflation-adjusted)
San Jose, CA
396%
8.1%
San Francisco, CA
300%
6.1%
Los Angeles, CA
292%
6.0%
Seattle, WA
280%
5.7%
San Diego, CA
271%
5.5%
Boston, MA
196%
4.0%
Riverside, CA
179%
3.7%
New York, NY
161%
3.3%
Denver, CO
161%
3.3%
Portland, OR
154%
3.1%
Sacramento, CA
154%
3.1%
Austin, TX
138%
2.8%
Providence, RI
129%
2.6%
Tampa, FL
114%
2.3%
Nashville, TN
113%
2.3%
Miami, FL
109%
2.2%
Phoenix, AZ
107%
2.2%
Washington, DC
96%
2.0%
Orlando, FL
93%
1.9%
Las Vegas, NV
82%
1.7%
Tucson, AZ
74%
1.5%
Raleigh, NC
71%
1.4%
Charlotte, NC
70%
1.4%
Jacksonville, FL
65%
1.3%
Baltimore, MD
62%
1.3%
Philadelphia, PA
61%
1.2%
Dallas, TX
59%
1.2%
Virginia Beach, VA
58%
1.2%
Minneapolis, MN
55%
1.1%
Hartford, CT
49%
1.0%
Buffalo, NY
47%
1.0%
San Antonio, TX
43%
0.9%
Columbus, OH
42%
0.9%
Richmond, VA
42%
0.8%
Atlanta, GA
40%
0.8%
Milwaukee, WI
38%
0.8%
Grand Rapids, MI
38%
0.8%
Louisville, KY
35%
0.7%
Chicago, IL
33%
0.7%
Houston, TX
29%
0.6%
Indianapolis, IN
28%
0.6%
Detroit, MI
27%
0.6%
Kansas City, MO
27%
0.5%
Pittsburgh, PA
26%
0.5%
Oklahoma City, OK
24%
0.5%
Cincinnati, OH
22%
0.5%
St. Louis, MO
18%
0.4%
Birmingham, AL
9%
0.2%
Cleveland, OH
2%
0.04%
Memphis, TN
2%
0.03%
* Metro names are shortened to their principal city for readability. Each metro spans multiple cities and may cross state lines.