February Home Prices, Tale of Two Coasts

U.S. homernprices were up 0.7 percent from January to February according to the Home PricernIndex (HPI) report released by Black Knight Financial Services on Monday.  The HPI was at $242,000 for the monthrncompared to $241,000 in January and was up 4.6 percent from the index level ofrn$232,000 in February 2014. The gain in the HPI was the largest for a monthrnsince June 2014.  </p

There was a strong divergence in price performance on therntwo coasts.  The largest month-to-monthrnchanges among all states were in Washington where the HPI rose 1.8 percentrnfollowed by California (+1.5 percent), Oregon (+1.4 percent), Colorado (+1.3rnpercent), and Hawaii (1.2 percent). rnPrices were down by 0.6 percent in Connecticut and 0.5 percent in bothrnNew Jersey and Vermont.  Three of thernfive remaining New England states also topped the list for price declines,rnRhode Island, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, all at -0.2 percent.  </p

There were some big gains among West Coast metropolitan areas with San Jose up 3.2 percent and San Francisco gaining 2.4 percent.  Seattle had a month-over-month increase of 2.0 percent, Napa and Santa Cruz were up 1.9 and 1.8 percent respectively.  Metros at the other end of the spectrum were again on the other coast – New Haven dropped by 1.3 percent, Atlantic City and Torrington, Connecticut declined 0.9 percent; Worcester, Massachusetts lost 0.8 percent, and Norwich, Connecticut was off 0.7 percent.</p

The February national HPI was down 9.5rnpercent from the peak it reached in June 2006 of $268,000.  Three states , Colorado, New York, and Texasrnestablished new price peaks for the month as did nine of the 40 largest metropolitanrnareas, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Anton, Denver, Honolulu, Nashville, San Jose,rnand Columbus, Ohio.  Las Vegas remainsrnthe furthest off its pre-crisis peak of any of the 40 most populous metropolitanrnareas, still down almost 41 percent.  </p

Colorado had the largest year-over-yearrnincrease among the 20 most populous states, up 9.4 percent.  Only Connecticut saw an annual decline, itsrnHPI was down 1.4 percent compared to February 2014.

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