U.S. home prices rose in October after the coronavirus recession last year.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, out Tuesday, climbed 18.4% in October from a year earlier. Although the gain was slightly slower than September’s 19.1% increase year-over-year, it was close to what economists expected.

Each of the 20 major cities saw double-digit increases in their annual incomes. Phoenix, Tampa (38.3%), and Miami (25.7%) were the hottest cities. The smallest gains were recorded in Minneapolis and Chicago, which saw 11.5% increases each.

Due to low mortgage rates and limited housing supply, the strength of the housing market is due to increased demand from homeowners who have been enslaved by the pandemic. People are tired of staying at home and being trapped during the pandemic. They want to move out of their apartments into larger homes.

It remains unclear if that shift is permanent or an aberration, said Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Lazzara explained that “we previously suggested the strength of U.S. real estate market in part due to a shift in geographic preferences as households react the the COVID pandemic,” Lazzara added. We will need more data to determine whether the demand surge is an acceleration of sales that occurred in the past several years or permanent secular changes.

Last week, mortgage rates fell — to 3.05% for the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate and 2.66% for the 15-year fixed-rate home loan. Credit markets are more worried about the persistently low rates than the high inflation rate in almost 40 years.

Last week, the National Association of Realtors announced that previously-occupied properties sold rose by 3.6% in November to 6.46 Million annually adjusted.