US cities where real home values grew most since 2000

Median home values have outpaced inflation in most large US cities since 2000, but the size of the real (inflation-adjusted) gain varies enormously. After converting 2000 home values to 2024 dollars using the BLS CPI, the 25 cities with the biggest real home-value gains since 2000 are below.

Mountain View, California leads at +$1,080,295 added to the median home value in real terms.

#	Place	2000 (in 2024 $)	Latest	Change
1	Mountain View, California	$846,705	$1,927,000	+$1,080,295
2	Encinitas, California	$625,739	$1,646,800	+$1,021,061
3	Sunnyvale, California	$804,079	$1,801,800	+$997,721
4	Redwood City, California	$888,239	$1,801,700	+$913,461
5	Santa Monica, California	$872,937	$1,755,500	+$882,563
6	Santa Clara, California	$704,981	$1,582,600	+$877,619
7	Cupertino, California	$1,156,569	$2,000,001	+$843,432
8	Bellevue, Washington	$523,361	$1,340,300	+$816,939
9	San Mateo, California	$826,303	$1,618,700	+$792,397
10	Newport Beach, California	$1,231,074	$2,000,001	+$768,927
11	Arcadia, California	$678,931	$1,441,800	+$762,869
12	Fremont, California	$645,412	$1,403,800	+$758,388
13	Pleasanton, California	$780,033	$1,537,100	+$757,067
14	Sammamish, Washington	$661,079	$1,407,300	+$746,221
15	San Ramon, California	$766,917	$1,509,500	+$742,583
16	San Clemente, California	$664,540	$1,398,400	+$733,860
17	Berkeley, California	$681,845	$1,413,900	+$732,055
18	Dublin, California	$596,228	$1,317,100	+$720,872
19	Santa Barbara, California	$854,903	$1,570,800	+$715,897
20	Redmond, Washington	$464,886	$1,167,800	+$702,914
21	Carlsbad, California	$562,527	$1,257,000	+$694,473
22	Redondo Beach, California	$622,277	$1,279,200	+$656,923
23	Irvine, California	$549,047	$1,191,500	+$642,453
24	Burbank, California	$453,956	$1,089,100	+$635,144
25	Costa Mesa, California	$480,370	$1,115,100	+$634,730

Key findings

• Mountain View, California leads the list at +$1,080,295.
• The 25th-ranked city on this list — Costa Mesa, California — shows +$634,730.
• Across the full universe of 871 city rows with both data points, the typical change was +$166,278.
• The top gainers concentrate in California (22 of the top 25), Washington (3 of the top 25).

Where the pattern sits geographically

California (22 of the top 25), Washington (3 of the top 25) together account for the bulk of the top of this list. Click any city above to open its CensusEasy page, which carries the full historical time series for every metric we publish (income, education, housing, commute, race composition, industry mix), plus its rank within its state and its national percentile on each metric.

How to read this

This ranking is sorted by absolute change, not by percentage change. Absolute change is the figure that lines up with how readers experience these numbers in everyday life ("the typical household here earns $X more than in 1990"). The percentage-change framing surfaces a different set of city rows — usually places that started from a low base — and we publish those rankings separately on the rankings pages.

A single metric never tells the whole story. The smallest gain on this list can reflect either change in the same population staying in place, or compositional change as some residents leave and others arrive. Companion studies on poverty, education, and housing cost together describe the fuller picture.