Even in middle-American housing markets, however—where home prices are supposedly more reasonable than on the coasts—prices have soared. In Cleveland, for example, the index is up 40 percent since early 2020. During the same period, the index rose 50 percent in Atlanta and 33 percent in Chicago. This sort of price inflation is not merely a product of the physical supply of housing. Demand for housing has been greatly inflated by nearly fifteen years of historic lows in interest rates, following by immense flows of newly created money during the Covid Panic. As economist Brendan Brown has noted, even as consumer price growth appeared low from 2008 to 2020, the effects of monetary inflation have long been visible in asset price inflation (e.g., home prices).

It is not at all surprising then that property taxes are rising as well. Fortunately for homeowners, though, property taxes have so far not kept up with market prices. According to an April report on property taxes from housing analytics company ATTOM,