Although two cities located in the Northwest consistently top the list of areas with the fastest-rising home values, a trio of D-cities recently rounded out the top five.
As of April, the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index was 188.5. Not only were prices the highest they’ve ever been, it was the fifth consecutive monthly record.
A more closely watched index is the Case-Shiller Composite-20 Index, which was 197.19, rising 0.9 percent from March and escalating 5.7 percent from April 2016.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data was reported Tuesday by S&P Dow Jones Indices.
The 20-city index is still 4.5 percent shy of the July 2006 peak but stands 47.1 percent above the March 2012 trough.
Compared to a year earlier, home prices were 12.9 percent higher in Seattle, the best-performing metropolitan statistical area among the 20 featured in the index. Portland followed with a 9.3 percent year-over-year gain. The pair of cities consistently land in the top-two spots.
Three other cities — Dallas with 8.4 percent year-over-year appreciation, Denver with 8.2 percent and Detroit with 7.4 percent — rounded out the top five.
At the other end of the scale was Cleveland, where the Case-Shiller data indicated prices
were up just 3.4 percent.
The regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, released its latest HPI indicating that U.S. home prices were up 0.7 percent between March and April and climbed 6.8 percent from one year prior.
FHFA’s data is based on purchase financing transactions
for loans sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie or Freddie.
In the Mountain Region, FHFA reported that home prices have leapt 8.9 percent on a year-over-year basis, the biggest gain of any region. But prices were up just 4.7 percent in the West North Central Region, the lowest appreciation.
Another HPI, from Black Knight Financial Services, had the average U.S. home value at a record $275,000 in April 2017, rising 1.2 percent from the prior month and 6.0 percent from a year prior.
Compared to March 2017, prices in Washington have ascended from April 2016 by 2.1 percent, more than any other state, Black Knight reported. Oregon was next at 1.9 percent, then New Jersey’s 1.8 percent, Nevada’s 1.8 percent and Montana’s 1.8 percent.
The weakest state in Black Knight’s report was West Virginia, where prices inched up just 0.1 percent.
CoreLogic Inc. reported that April 2017’s national home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 1.6 percent from the preceding month and have escalated 6.9 percent from a year earlier.
CoreLogic estimates that prices increased 0.7 percent between April and
May, while they are forecasted be up 5.1 percent by April 2018.