The housing prices that define the most expensive metropolitan areas in the country—think San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles—have gone national.
"[O]ne impact of the pandemic appears to be far more metropolitan areas where the real estate market looks increasingly like San Francisco’s," according to an article by Kellie Hwang for the San Francisco Chronicle [paywall].
Hwang is sharing a recent analysis by the Chronicle that used Zillow data to catalogue the U.S. metropolitan areas experiencing "significant increases in home values and decreasing housing inventory over the pandemic."
"In our data analysis, we narrowed down the list to areas where home values rose 40% or more from Jan. 2020 to Jan. 2022, inventory from the same time period fell by 40% or more, and inventory is now at two homes or fewer per 1,000 people," explains Hwang.
“Two years into the pandemic, the U.S. housing market is virtually unrecognizable from before, with nearly half the number of homes for sale, prices a third higher and rising.” -Zillow spokesperson Tyrone Law
"What we found was a mix of both large and smaller metro areas whose housing markets have become less affordable and scarcer over the past two years."
The list might surprise: Missoula, Montana; Port Angeles, Washington; Provo, Utah; Oak Harbor, Washington; Salt Lake City, Utah; Raleigh, North Carolina; Merced, California; San Diego, California; Bellingham, Washington; and Helena Montana.
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