House Price Appreciation by State and Metro Area: Third Quarter 2024

House prices posted modest annual growth for the third quarter of 2024, as elevated mortgage rates kept many potential home buyers away from the housing market. Nonetheless, housing inventory has improved in recent months.

Nationally, house price appreciation has decelerated for two straight quarters. According to the quarterly all-transactions House Price Index (HPI) released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), U.S. house prices rose 5.1% in the third quarter of 2024, compared to the third quarter of 2023.

The quarterly FHFA HPI not only reports house prices at the national level, but also provides insights about house price fluctuations at the state and metro area levels. The FHFA HPI used in this article is the all-transactions index, measuring average price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same single-family properties.  

Between the third quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2024, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had positive house price appreciation, ranging from 1.2% to 8.8%. New Jersey and Connecticut topped the house price appreciation list with an 8.8% gain. They were followed by Rhode Island with an 8.4% gain. Meanwhile, the District of Columbia had the lowest price growth (+1.2%). Among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, 29 states exceeded the national growth rate of 5.1%. Compared to the second quarter of 2024, 40 out of the 50 states had a deceleration in house price appreciation in the third quarter.

House prices have changed unevenly across U.S. metro areas, from the third quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2024. House price appreciation ranged from -9.0% to +19.1%. In the third quarter of 2024, 21 metro areas, in reddish color on the map above, had negative house price appreciation, while the remaining 363 metro areas experienced positive price appreciation.

Additionally, house prices have increased dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, house prices rose 50.4% between the first quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2024. More than half of the metro areas saw house prices rise by more than the national price growth rate of 50.4%.

The table below shows the top and bottom ten markets for house price appreciation between the first quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2024. Among all the metro areas, house price appreciation ranged from 13.1% to 81.4%. Knoxville, TN has experienced the highest house price appreciation. Lake Charles, LA had the lowest appreciation.