US housing prices rally by 1.7%

In the United States housing prices tacked on by up to 1.7% in this year’s first quarter. That’s what the housing price index provided by the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported. Housing prices gained by 6.9% in the first quarter of this year in contrast with the first quarter of 2017. As a matter of fact, the seasonally updated monthly index from the FHFA for March rallied by 0.1% from February.

HPI is calculated utilizing data on prices for the sale of housing from mortgages sold or guaranteed by such organizations as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Home prices keep rising across all US states, although there’re signs of a decline, as some financial analysts told. Since the housing market started recovering in 2012, the jump in house prices turned out to be positive due to the fact demand managed to outstrip supply. However, in the previous month, some regions have shown a slowdown in housing prices.

Home prices ascended in all 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia between the first quarter of the previous year and the first quarter of this year. To be exact, the top five best estimates include: Nevada - 13.7%, Washington - 13.1%, Idaho - 11.1%, Colorado - 10.6% and also Utah with its 9.9%.

Housing prices have gained in each of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States for the last four quarters. Evidently, the annual price increase happened to be the largest in Las Vegas-Henderson-Rye, Nevada, where prices added by 17.1%. Additionally, prices were the weakest in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they soared by 0.8%.

Meanwhile, of the nine census divisions, the Pacific Division demonstrated the strongest estimate for four quarters, adding 9.5% between the first quarters of 2017 and 2018 as well as a 2.6% leap for the first quarter of this year.