It will come as no surprise that San Francisco is among the top three cities that showed the highest home price growth in North America over the last five years. At 69% SF came in 3rd. Detroit, MI saw the largest leap with a staggering increase of 97% (nearly double!) and Surrey, B.C. Canada is at 2nd with 88% growth. The study, conducted by Point2Homes, involved 83 cities spanning all of North America as Canada and Mexico have also seen big growth in home prices.

In 2013 the median home price in San Francisco was $800,000 (remember those days?). And although prices leveled off in some parts of the city over the last year, according to Curbed, there was still an overall jump in the last five years to a $1,350,000 median price. San Jose and Sacramento are at 10th and 11th respectively, at 58% and 56% jumps.

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Eighteen out of the 83 largest North American cities included in this study saw net home price jumps of 50% or more – clearly illustrating the issue of housing affordability as median incomes are not matching this level of growth.

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Companies like the SF based HomeShare are offering creative options for those who can’t keep up with these staggering prices. HomeShare vets and matches roommates to live together in otherwise unaffordable luxury buildings. Says Jeffrey Pang, CEO, “Homeshare, through technology, is trying to provide an escape valve” in the growing pressure of the housing market.

A 2016 study from CITYLAB considers geography a major factor in expensive cities. Cities such as L.A., Seattle, and San Francisco face hard physical boundaries like coastlines and mountains, which can limit capacity for expansion and raise demand.

Although we don’t know for sure, we can probably guess demand will continue to rise in the next five years.

See the full study from Point2Homes here.

When you’re ready to find your slice of our fair city, theFrontSteps is there for you.