November 2025 · Markets · 3 min read · by Kinan Sawar, MD — REALTOR® at Shorewest, REALTORS®
Year-over-year numbers are noise right now. The five-year change is where the real repricing of American housing shows up.
With prices roughly flat over the last year, the twelve-month change has gone quiet. To see what actually happened to American housing, you have to widen the lens to five years.
Nationally the typical home is up more than 25% over five years. That average masks a tale of two countries: large stretches of the Sun Belt and Mountain West ran up 40–60%+, while some slower-growth Midwestern and Northeastern markets posted far more modest gains.
Interestingly, several long-affordable metros that lagged early in the boom have since closed part of the gap as buyers and investors chased value inland. The repricing didn’t stay on the coasts and in the obvious boomtowns — it rippled outward.
For anyone trying to read a market’s trajectory, the five-year change filters out the short-term noise of rate swings and seasonal lulls. Color the map by “5-yr change” to see the durable winners — then cross-check against migration and overvaluation to judge whether the run has further to go.
Kinan Sawar, MD — REALTOR® at Shorewest, REALTORS®, serving Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth counties). Email: [email protected] · Phone: (618) 713-2964.
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Home values and rents are Zillow ZHVI/ZORI estimates for the named area, as of 2026-07-03; incomes and population are U.S. Census (SAIPE, Population Estimates); migration is IRS Statistics of Income. Area-level statistical estimates for information only — not an appraisal, and not financial, legal, or tax advice.