Price Gains Slow in Most Large Markets

Another source is affirming that the rapid growth in home prices that started in 2013 has continued to slow and that the deceleration is broad based.  RealtyTrac's February Home Price Appreciation Analysis found that annual price increases have slowed from a year ago in 60 of the 92 large metropolitan areas it tracks. 

Many of the year-over-year changes were huge.  In Detroit appreciation slowed to one-third its earlier pace, from 30 to 10 percent.  Riverside-San Bernardino dropped from 24 percent to 7 percent, Boston from 16 percent to 3 percent, and in Chicago the rate of increase dropped 10 percentage points to 6 percent.  Increases in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami were down by at least 50 percent.   

Prices gains did not slow in all locations of course.  Houston's annual appreciation more than quadrupled from a year earlier - from 5 percent to 21 percent.  Seven of the ten cities with the most rapid acceleration are located in the Sun Belt.

Median prices nationally increased 14 percent compared to February 2014 but were unchanged from January at $183,000.  The median price of a distressed property increased 13 percent on an annual basis to $127,000 which represents a 33 percent discount from market prices.

Part of the continuing though diminished rise in home prices can be accounted for by a shrinking of the proportion of sales at the lower end of the market.  The share of sales of homes under $200,000 have fallen from 63 percent in February 2011 to 47.4 percent in February 2014 with virtually all of that decrease coming from sales under $100,000.  During the same period the share of sales in every other price category except homes over $5 million (which declined by 15 percent) have risen by double digits.

"While still significant at 33 percent, the average discount buyers are realizing on distressed homes has been shrinking over the past 18 months after hitting a high of 40 percent in September 2013," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. "Inventory of distressed properties is drying up in many markets even while demand for those properties - which typically fall into the target market for both investors and first-time homebuyers - is ramping up. That is in turn resulting in nationwide home prices skewing higher as a smaller share of homes sell at the lower end of the market."

The recovery has helped 17 metro areas (18 percent of the 92 areas studied) reach new peaks in median home prices in 2014 including Denver, Colorado ($265,000), San Jose, California ($714,750), Chattanooga, Tennessee ($130,000), Madison, Wisconsin ($215,900) and Nashville, Tennessee ($175,000).