The S&P/Case-Shiller and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released their respective home price indices for April. National home prices increased at a more moderate annual growth rate, while local home price gains varied.
The Home Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 8.3% in April, slower than 8.8% in March, confirming the deceleration in home prices.
Figure 2 shows the annual growth rate of home prices for 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas. In April local home price grew at different rates.
Among the 20 metro areas, Detroit, Seattle and Las Vegas had the highest home price appreciation. Detroit led the way with 23.7%, followed by Seattle with 13.8% and Las Vegas with a 12.1% increase. Fifteen out of the 20 metro areas had home price appreciation. Moreover, eleven metro areas had higher home price appreciation than the national level of 2.0%. Home prices depreciated in the remaining five metro areas in April and they were: Washington DC (-1.2%), Tampa (-6.0%), San Francisco (-6.6%), Boston (-7.9%) and Cleveland (-11.3%).
Brought to you by JING FU (NAHB Eye on Housing) on