First American Data & Analytics released its January 2024 Home Price Index (HPI) report.
The report tracks home price changes less than four weeks behind real time at the national, state and metropolitan (Core-Based Statistical Area) levels and includes metropolitan price tiers that segment sale transactions into starter, mid and luxury tiers.
January House Price Index Highlights include:
- Between December 2023 and January 2024, house prices increased 0.3 percent.
- House prices increased 7.2 percent between January 2023 and January 2024.
- House prices reached a new peak for the 10th month in a row in January 2024.
- Annual house price growth peaked in December 2023 at 7.7 percent.
“The pace of annualized home price appreciation peaked in December, as buyers rushed to take advantage of falling mortgage rates. In January, the preliminary estimate of annualized appreciation cooled modestly by half a percent and is likely to slow down further in the coming months,” Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American, said in a release. “Despite concern that house prices could decline significantly at the beginning of 2023, rate-locked potential homesellers kept supply tight, maintaining pressure on prices. Optimism that mortgage rates will fall in 2024 may incent more homeowners to sell, boosting supply and, in turn, improving affordability for buyers. While more supply and improved affordability should cool post-pandemic hot house price appreciation, 2024 may still be the year that house price appreciation doesn’t get too cold, but closer to just right.”
The five most populous states experienced the following year-over-year growth in the HPI: Pennsylvania (+8.4 percent), Florida (+6.1 percent), Texas (+5.3 percent), California (+4.4 percent), and New York (+4.4 percent).
There were no states with a year-over-year decrease in the HPI.
Among the 30 core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) tracked by First American Data & Analytics, the five markets with the greatest year-over-year increase in the HPI are: Nassau County, N.Y. (+10.7 percent), Anaheim, Calif. (+10.2 percent), Warren, Mich. (+9.6 percent), Miami (+9.4 percent), and Pittsburgh (+8.8 percent).
There were no CBSAs with a year-over-year decrease in the HPI.
“While house prices increased in all 30 markets tracked by our index over the last year, this rising tide hides the change in market prices since their peak,” Fleming added. “Measuring the price change in each market from their post-pandemic peak reveals that house prices are below their prior peaks in 23 of the top 30 markets. Notably, house prices are currently 6 percent or more below their prior peak in six markets, with the largest price declines from peak in Oakland (-13.5 percent), Austin, Texas (-9.9 percent), and Seattle (-9.2 percent).”