Despite higher mortgage rates, more than 90% of U.S. metros posted home price gains in the first quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
“Astonishingly, greater than 90% of the country’s metro areas experienced home price growth despite facing the highest mortgage rates in two decades,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, in a statement. “In the current market, rising prices are the direct result of insufficient housing supply not meeting the full demand.”
Thirty percent of the 221 tracked metro areas experienced double-digit price gains over the first quarter, up from 15% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Year-over-year, the median U.S. home price was up 5%.
Compared with the fourth quarter, the median U.S. home price was up 3.4%.
Among the major U.S. regions, the South registered the largest share of single-family existing-home sales (46%) in the first quarter, with year-over-year price appreciation of 3.3%.
Prices also swelled 11% in the Northeast, 7.4% in the Midwest and 7.3% in the West.
The top 10 metro areas with the largest year-over-year median price increases, which can be influenced by the types of homes sold during the quarter, all registered gains of at least 18.2%.
Six of the markets were in Illinois and Wisconsin. Overall, those markets were Fond du Lac, Wis. (23.7%); Kankakee, Ill. (22.0%); Rockford, Ill. (20.1%); Champaign-Urbana, Ill. (20.0%); Johnson City, Tenn. (19.3%); Racine, Wis. (19.0%); Newark, N.J.-Pa. (18.8%); Bloomington, Ill. (18.5%); New York-Jersey City-White Plains, N.Y.-N.J. (18.4%); and Cumberland, Md.-W.Va. (18.2%).
Photo: Trinity Nguyen