UNO Research Finds Omaha Housing Prices Continue to Climb Despite Pandemic

The average price of single-family home in Omaha rose by over 10 percent in 2020 -- a nearly eight percent spike compared to the preceding 20 years, according to UNO research.

The Housing Price Project at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) has tracked single-family housing price appreciation across the greater Omaha area from 2000 through the end of 2020. Steven Shultz, Ph.D., Baright Professor of Real Estate and Land Use Economics within UNO’s College of Business Administration leads the project.

Through the project, researchers found that housing prices in Omaha appreciated 2.9 percent, on average, each year over the past two decades, but increased substantially in 2020. The data indicates a combination of a sharp decrease in the number of homes for sale – nearly 34 percent – and historically low mortgage interest rates led to the spike.

Shultz said some aspects of this year’s report have surprised him as well as other experts and professionals in local real estate. “Our reduced inventory in 2020 was muted in Omaha as compared to other parts of the country,” Shultz said. “Omaha’s data is particularly interesting in that housing price appreciation during this COVID year was high in older and relatively less-wealthy areas of North and South Omaha. By contrast, trends nationally saw some of the biggest price gains in the wealthier suburbs.”

South Omaha and North Omaha continue to see the highest appreciation due in part to the highest availability of affordable housing. Conversely, housing in Central Omaha and the Westside School District area has the lowest availability of affordable housing and have seen the lowest appreciation.

Additional information behind the data and methodology used to compile these findings, including which zip codes are included in each of the 14 submarkets identified, can be found in a new report released this month by Housing Price Project. The full report and other reports by the UNO Center for Real Estate and Asset Management can be viewed here.