House Prices Up 12.6% For Year

US house prices continued to shoot up in the first quarter of the year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported Tuesday.

Prices increased 12.6 percent from the first quarter of last year – and were 3.5 percent higher than the fourth quarter, FHFA announced in its House Price Index. The index also increased 1.4 percent in March.

The index found:

  • House prices have risen for 39 consecutive quarters, or since September 2011.
  • House prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021.
  • The top five states with the highest annual appreciation were Idaho (23.7 percent), Utah (19.2 percent), Arizona (17.4 percent), New Hampshire (16.2 percent), and Connecticut (15.9 percent).
  • The states showing the lowest annual appreciation were Hawaii (4.7 percent), Louisiana (6.8 percent), Wyoming (6.9 percent), North Dakota (7.5 percent) and Mississippi (8.1 percent).
  • House prices rose in 99 of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States – or everywhere except Honolulu, where they decreased by 0.7 percent.

“House price growth over the prior year clocked in at more than twice the rate of growth observed in the first quarter of 2020, just before the effects of the pandemic were felt in housing markets,” said Dr. Lynn Fisher, Deputy Director of FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “In March, rates of appreciation continued to climb, exceeding 15 percent over the year in the Pacific, Mountain and New England census divisions.”