West Sees Biggest Jumps in Home Prices

The West has the country’s hottest housing market at the moment, according to the Home Data Index (HDI) Market Report released by Clear Capital on Monday. Both the region’s quarterly and year-over-year price increase are outpacing the nation’s, and low numbers of distressed properties ensure prices will keep on growing for the foreseeable future.

According to the HDI, the West had the strongest market both for the quarter and the year, with home prices jumping 1.2 percent since Q4 2016 and 8 percent over the last 12 months. The saturation of distressed properties is at just 8.4 percent, compared to the national average of 11.9 percent. The Northeast, South, and Midwest all boast distressed saturation rates of 13 percent or more.

But strong markets in the West and Northwest don’t mean the rest of the U.S. is performing poorly. In fact, Clear Capital reported that “quarterly growth in other regions is still healthy for this time of year as the South, Midwest, and Northeast continue to outperform May 2016 QoQ metrics.”

Seattle was the fastest growing metro for the quarter, rising from 0.3 percent to 1.9 percent since the end of 2016. Prices in the area also jumped 12.4 percent over the year—exactly twice as much as the national average increase for the same period. Portland was another top-performing NW market, with a 1.5 percent rise in home prices for the quarter and an 11.5 percent jump for the year.

Aside from NW cities, there were other metro markets to perform well for Q1, Jacksonville was one of the top, with a quarter-over-quarter price jump of nearly 2 percent. The declining saturation of distressed properties in the cities likely contributed to the rising prices. The city saw distressed saturation drop more than 10 percent over the year, falling from 25.2 percent to 15.8 percent.

Fresno, California, came in as the No. 3 best market for the quarter, while Portland and Chicago took the No. 4 and 5 spots.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the lowest performing markets for the quarter were Memphis, Tennessee; Milwaukee; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Rochester, New York; and Hartford, Connecticut.

Dallas came in as one of the 15 lowest-performing markets for the quarter, with prices rising just 0.8 percent for the quarter. Five months ago, the Texas city was one of the best-performing metros in the country with a 1.5 percent growth rate. The news isn’t all bad for the metro though; the city saw a 9.1 percent jump in prices over the year.