Home prices are soaring - here's how much the average home costs in the 15 most popular big cities

US home prices rose past expectations at the end of 2016, according to S&P/Case-Shiller index data from November.

The 20 city-index, which covers major metropolitan areas like Seattle and Chicago, rose by 5.27%, above economists' expectations of 5.03%, and up from 5.1% in October.

Housing markets in big cities out West, including Portland, Seattle, and Denver, experienced significant bumps in growth, according to the report.

Gains are largely due to a healthy jobs market and historically low mortgage rates, which have increased demand for homeownership since the financial crisis, reports Business Insider's Elena Holodny.

"National home prices continue to grow at a rapid clip, largely driven upward by the now-familiar forces of high demand from home buyers and limited supply of homes available for sale," Svenja Gudll, Zillow chief economist said after the report.

"But even as the pace of home value growth keeps rising, growth in rents is flattening out and stabilizing, which - combined with a series of other factors - will likely begin impacting the for-sale market sooner or later."

New data provided to Business Insider by Zillow underscores Portland's national lead, reporting 13.8% home value growth for the metro over the last year. That's 2% higher than Tampa, purportedly the second most in-demand market.

Below, check out the top-15 most popular big cities - as measured by home value growth over the past year - and what a median-value home looks like in each.