Seasonal declines in home values are common this time of year, and slightly more than a quarter of the markets covered in HSH's Home Value Tracker sported lower values than in the second quarter of 2024. In addition, more than 20 markets posted declines compared to the third quarter of 2023.
December 5, 2024 - HSH.com released today an updated Home Value Tracker, the firm's quarterly analysis of home values changes in the nation’s top 400 metropolitan housing markets. Developed by HSH, a premier consumer destination for mortgage information and shopping since 1979, HVT reveals the 10 metropolitan areas with the fastest annual home price increases and the 10 with the smallest annual gains -- or largest declines. HSH also offers a custom-time-period lookup tool for value changes in over 400 metropolitan areas.
HSH's recurring evaluation reviews home value changes in more than 400 of the most populous metropolitan areas, displaying home value changes for each compared to the previous quarter and previous two quarters as well as over the last one-, three- and five-year periods. A home value lookup tool allows users to see their local market's changes over these fixed time points.
HSH also makes available a lookup tool called Home Value Tracker-MyHVT that allows users to see how values have changed in any of the 400 metros during any time period from 1995 to now, revealing what's happened to the value of their home during a given ownership period. Visitors enter the purchase price of their home and the quarter in which they purchased it; MyHVT then factors for changes in the home's value from that time, calculating a current price estimate based on changes in home value trends in the selected metro.
After what is usually the most robust housing season of the year, home values begin their typical seasonal softening in the third quarter. The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home prices reached new record highs in the second quarter, so even if they should be sizable, any reduction in home values in a given area likely only returned them to a previous peak.
Still, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, 112 of the 404 metropolitan housing markets tracked in HSH's Home Value Tracker posted lower values compared to the second quarter. Easing in value ranged from as little as a fraction of a percentage point in the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent FL metro area to as much as nearly 8 percent in the Weirton-Steubenville WV-OH region.
Of course, there were sizable gains in value, too. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, 95 metros had fractional increases in home values of less than a percentage point, but there were 20 with increases in excess of 5 percentage points, including outsized gains of almost 19% in the Rocky Mount, NC area and almost 15% in the Danville, IL market. Such sizable gains in these smaller metro areas are likely the result of having had very few transactions during the period, and so the quarter-to-quarter moves are exaggerated.
That said, there were also 21 metro areas where home values were lower compared with the same period one year ago. With five markets each, about half of these were evenly divided between Florida and Texas, but Louisiana and New Mexico both had two markets with annual declines. The remainder were scattered.
The lowest home values of each year are typically seen in the fourth quarter, so there is a good likelihood that more metros will sport lower values to close 2024.
| Value changes from a sampling of major metro areas | Percent value increase since 3Q23 |
| Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY | 6.40% |
| Baton Rouge, LA | 5.11% |
| Wichita Falls, TX | 2.00% |
| Sioux Falls, SD | 2.73% |
| Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA | 1.39% |
| Tucson, AZ | 5.23% |
See the full set of more than 400 metro areas here: https://www.hsh.com/home-value-tracker.html
HSH.com’s Home Value Tracker uses the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) Home Price Index for insight on changes to housing market values. HVT is based on an "all transactions" index involving conforming, conventional mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and includes both purchase and refinance transactions. The data does not include property transactions backed by FHA, VA, USDA or private-market non-conforming (i.e. jumbo) mortgages.
About HSH.com
Since 1979, HSH.com has been a trusted mortgage resource for consumers seeking independent, objective and expert-level mortgage information, forecasts and data. HSH.com offers unique analysis, calculators, tools and content to help demystify first mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, reverse mortgages and more. HSH.com empowers homebuyers and homeowners to fully understand their home financing choices and provide opportunities for them to engage with partners to execute their transactions.
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