Home Values Held Steady in First Quarter

Home values were relatively stable across the country during the first quarter, according to the home price index compiled by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The index is considered especially accurate because it tracks the changing values of the same homes through the agencies' records.

The Mountain States posted the largest gain in home values among the nine regions surveyed, with a 2.6% increase. Values in seven regions were virtually unchanged, and homes in New England suffered a 1.2% loss in value. That region also had the largest decline over the last five years, 10%.

According to the Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index, national home prices were up 0.2% during the quarter and have risen 2.6% over the last 12 months and 13% over the last five years.

Not only did the Mountain States have the largest gain in the first quarter this year, the area's home values have gone up 40.7% in the last five years more than in any other region.

The next highest first-quarter increases were in the South Atlantic (District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia), and West North Central states (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska). Both grew 0.5%.

After New England, the next biggest decline for the quarter was in the Middle Atlantic region, where home values were down 0.5%.

The index is a joint effort by the secondary-market agencies, formally known as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Federal National Mortgage Association. Released quarterly, it looks at the actual sale prices or appraised values of the same homes over time. The data compare more than 4.7 million transactions. The indexes match the street address of new home mortgages against previous mortgages to compare values.

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