A first-quarter report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that more than 90% of homes across the U.S. saw their prices rise.
The report, which comprehensively analyzed home prices in the first quarter of the financial year and the overall state of the housing market, provides a reliable snapshot of the current housing situation.
National Association of Realtors report
The report also found that 30% of the 221 tracked metro areas recorded double-digit growth. The same recorded figure in 2023 was 15% less, so this doubling of the amount of homes seeing this growth is impressive.
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said of the reported surge, “Astonishingly, greater than 90% of the country’s metro areas experienced home price growth despite facing the highest mortgage rates in two decades.”
Home price declines were recorded in the first quarter of 2024, but they were halved compared to the last quarter of 2023. At the tail-end of last year, the 14% price decline seemed steep, but a rosier 7% decline was recorded in comparison.
“The expensive markets in the West, where home prices declined last year, are roaring back,” Yun said. “Price dips in that region were viewed as second-chance opportunities by many buyers.”
The average mortgage payment for a single-family home was $2,037, 20% down from quarter 4 of 2023. However, this was still up compared to the same time in 2023, when it was 9.3%—or $173.
“In the current market, rising prices are the direct result of insufficient housing supply not meeting the full demand,” says Yun.
Eight of the most expensive regions were all in California. Those markets were:
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. ($1,840,000; 13.7%)
- Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif. ($1,365,000; 14.2%)
- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif. ($1,300,000; 14%)
- Urban Honolulu, Hawaii ($1,085,800; 5.5%)
- San Diego-Carlsbad, Calif. ($981,000; 11.5%)
- San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Calif. ($909,300; 7%)
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif. ($908,700; 7.6%)
- Salinas, Calif. ($899,200; 4.1%)
- Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Fla. ($850,000; 9.4%)
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. ($823,000; 10.2%)
Image: Ideogram.
