National home prices did so well in March, many markets fell just shy of their all-time peak, from a full decade ago, according to the newest national home price index (HPI) from Black Knight Financial Services [1].
The HPI [2], released Tuesday, set the national average home value in March at $257,000, about 4 percent off the June, 2006, peak of $268,000. Nationally, this represents an uptick of 1.2 percent over February and a 5.3 percent rise from a year prior.
Every state and metro studied in the survey showed price increases from February, with each of the top ten metros‒‒ Seattle, Boulder, Portland, Walla Walla, Spokane, San Jose, Denver, Chicago, Mount Vernon, Wash., and Muskegon, Mich.‒‒up by at least 2 percent. Even Atlantic City, which came in dead last for metro growth, showed 0.1 percent growth in home values.
Twelve of the 40 largest U.S. metros came statistically even with their peaks, the HPI reported. San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Denver were all up more than 10 percent from a year prior, and San Francisco and Denver each reached new all-time peaks in home values in March.
Statewise, Washington led the way with 2.1 percent appreciation, followed by Illinois, Oregon and Colorado, each of which reported t 1.9 percent appreciation. Wyoming and South Dakota tied for last on the list, but still posted 0.3 percent growth over February. Texas, Tennessee, Washington, and New York all tied their peaks in March; Washington’s HPI was a full 10 percent above where it was a year ago.
Year-over-year, the only top 40 metro to show a drop in HPI was St, Louis, which was down 3.7 percent (to $159,000) from March, 2015, and is still 15 percent off from its June, 2007, peak of $189,000. Similarly, it’s state, Missouri, was the only top 20 state to be down from last year. Missouri, at $160,000, was 0.5 percent off from March, 2015, and is still down 9.4 percent from its June, 2007, peak of $176,000.
While they showed solid growth in March and since 2015, Arizona and Florida remain more than 20 percent shy of their all-time peaks. Las Vegas, though up 1.1 percent in March and 1.7 percent on the year, is still 36 percent off its May, 2006, peak of $334,000.