A new real estate report confirms something that Houstonians pretty much already knew: The city of Houston saw a significant increase in housing prices among U.S. cities within the last decade, with median home prices skyrocketing up to 86 percent.

The report by online real estate database PropertyShark analyzed median home sale prices in 41 of the most populous U.S. cities and locales in 2014 and 2023. According to the study, the median sale price of a home in Houston in 2014 was $142,000. A decade later, median housing prices in the city nearly doubled, landing at $264,000 in 2023.

Demand for housing increased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when "millions of office employees suddenly shifted to working from home across the country" and many of the city's attractions, restaurants, and events were suddenly gone, according to the report.

The report did not analyze the reasons for Houston's price growth, but it did analyze Dallas' growth, which was the sharpest jump of all cities at 142 percent. It says the jump in Dallas was due to "a notable increase in population, a robust economy (further bolstered by the increase in corporate HQs) and a generally low unemployment rate." Houston likely followed a similar pattern.

According to the study's analysis of downtown-only residential transactions, median sale prices of a home in downtown Houston jumped from $324,000 in 2014 to $391,000 in 2023.

The 21 percent price hike over the last decade reflects a common trend Houstonians already know well: Living close to downtown has always been less sustainable than living in other parts of the city, but as both get more expensive, the outskirts are catching up.

This — a major slowdown in prices of downtown residential properties — was a big trend throughout the country. It's one that started during the pandemic in 2020 and has widened ever since. In 31 downtowns of the 41 locations analyzed, prices grew at a slower rate than they did in the entire city.

"As the pandemic persisted — along with remote work models, which later morphed into hybrid setups — buying preferences shifted from downtowns to more suburban areas and smaller towns," the report said.

Even more dramatic, Dallas was one of nine locations in the U.S. where city-level housing prices rose so fast that they eclipsed downtown prices, along with cities such as Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington, and Kansas City, Missouri.

The full report can be found on propertyshark.com.