During the fourth quarter of 2018, home prices rose 1.1 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), released this week. From the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018, home prices rose 5.7 percent.
“House prices rose throughout 2018, but at a slower rate than in recent years,” says Dr. William Doerner, FHFA supervisory economist. “In the fourth quarter, house price appreciation hit one of the lowest levels in the past four years.”
Annual appreciation was highest in the Mountain Census division (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming), where home prices rose 8.1 percent over the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018, and lowest in the West South Central division (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas), where prices rose 4.3 percent in that period.