Appreciation is continuing to escalate at a healthy pace, but not as rapid as it was, especially in the largest markets, according to the latest Real Estate Market Report by Zillow.
The average home in the U.S. is worth $223,900, according to the Dec. 2018 Zillow Home Value Index—a figure that has grown 7.6 percent in the past year. In Dec. 2017, annual appreciation was 7.4 percent.
Annual appreciation in coastal, larger markets, however—including San Jose, Calif., and Seattle, Wash., two leading markets in the price run-up—slowed. In Dec. 2018, homes in San Jose were up 9.9 percent—a dive from Dec. 2017, when values were up 16.8 percent. Over the same window, in Seattle, annual appreciation has gone from 12.4 percent to 5 percent.
Altogether, appreciation downshifted in 19 of the 35 largest markets, according to the report:
“Looking at the nation as a whole, housing appreciation seems stabilized at an arguably aggressive pace,” says Skylar Olsen, director of Economic Research and Outreach at Zillow. “The exceptions to the rule are the metros that saw the fastest appreciation over the past few years, where home values far outpaced incomes. Employment growth continues, but that kind of extreme home value growth isn’t sustainable, and homebuyers’ willingness and ability to outbid each other is falling back fast. We expect continued slowdowns in those expensive coastal markets.”
For more information, please visit www.zillow.com.
Suzanne De Vita is RISMedia’s online news editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at sdevita@rismedia.com.
