U.S. house prices continue to rise, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index.
The latest report showed that prices rose 6.6 percent in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2023. House prices were also up 1.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
“U.S. house prices continued to grow at a steady pace in the first quarter,” Dr. Anju Vajja, deputy director for FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics, said. “Over the last six consecutive quarters, the low inventory of homes for sale continued to contribute to house price appreciation despite mortgage rates that hovered around 7 percent.”
Among the key findings, the report said that house prices rose in all 50 states in Q1 with Vermont (12.8 percent); New Jersey (11.6 percent); New York (10.9 percent); Delaware (10.7 percent); and Wisconsin (9.9 percent) having the highest increases.
Further, house prices rose in 97 of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas over the last four quarters. The annual price increase was the greatest in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ at 16.0 percent, while Urban Honolulu, HI had the largest decline at -3.2 percent.
In addition, the Middle Atlantic division recorded the strongest appreciation, posting a 9.9 percent increase in the quarter, while the West South Central division recorded the smallest four-quarter appreciation, at 3.7 percent. But all nine regions had price increases in the quarter.
Overall U.S. housing market has experienced positive annual appreciation each quarter since the start of 2012.
The FHFA HPI incorporates tens of millions of home sales and offers insights about house price fluctuations at the national, census division, state, metro area, county, ZIP code, and census tract levels.