It’s no secret: Home prices in the U.S. have soared this year. Driven largely by a deep inventory shortage, historically low mortgage rates, and intense homebuyer demand, homes are now more expensive than they were at the end of last year. Phoenix ranked eighth of all MSAs in the U.S. Phoenix experienced the eighth largest percentage change in median home prices among all U.S. metro areas at 9.43%, with a jump in home prices from $344,770 in December 2020 to $377,267 in June 2021.

READ ALSO: Phoenix leads nation with 25.9% home price increase

Real estate brokerage HouseCanary, known for its gold standard valuation tools, found the top 25 metropolitan areas in the U.S. with the highest median home price change from December 2020 to June 2021. According to its data, the top 25 metro areas experienced a cumulative increase of 9.32% during that timespan. Boise, Idaho, saw the largest median home price increase of all metro areas at nearly 13%.

Buyers are favoring the South and West

“Looking at the markets experiencing the highest price growth, we have seen large migration to states with no income tax, including Florida, Washington, Nevada and Texas,” said Chris Stroud, co-founder and chief of research at HouseCanary. Of the 25 metro areas on the list, 10 are based in Florida.

“There is a general migration pattern toward southern, southwestern and mountain states,” Stroud said. “While these themes were present before COVID-19 hit the U.S. in spring 2020, they have significantly accelerated as the pandemic has altered the way many Americans work and live.”

Only two metro areas on the list — Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Lebanon, New Hampshire — are located outside of the Southern and Western U.S.

Stroud added that more flexibility among employers and an increase in remote work spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a migration out of high-cost employment hubs. This is especially true in California, where individuals are leaving expensive coastal cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco and flocking to lower-cost regions like the Central Valley and Inland Empire.

Six California metro areas made the list — and all of them are based in either the Central Valley or Inland Empire. Sacramento ($540,983) finished with the highest median home price of all metro areas on the list, followed by Stockton ($496,403), and Riverside ($474,390).

Here are the top 25 metro areas that saw the biggest jump in median home prices from December 2020 to June 2021:

Note: Median home prices come from HouseCanary’s MSA level median home price indices. HouseCanary’s MSA level median home price indices track the historical median home price over time within each available MSA. The 25 MSAs shown exhibited the highest percent change in median home price between December 2020 and June 2021.

Data by HouseCanary. Analysis by Credible.