Seasonal declines in home values are common this time of year, and more than a third of the markets covered in HSH's Home Value Tracker sported lower values than in the third quarter of 2024. In addition, 18 markets posted declines compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
February 27, 2025 - 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.
Home values usually continue their seasonal declines in the fourth quarter of each year, possibly affording homebuyers with a chance to save a few dollars on a home, at least relative to the year's peak. The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home prices reached new record highs in the second quarter of 2024, so while helpful, any reduction in home values in a given area likely only returned them to a previous value peak.
Still, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, 152 of the 404 metropolitan housing markets tracked in HSH's Home Value Tracker posted lower home values compared to the third quarter. On a quarterly basis, easing in value ranged from as little as a fraction of a percentage point in the Kankakee, IL metro area to as much as nearly 6.6 percent in the Wheeling WV-OH regional market.
Of course, there were sizable gains in value, too. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, 117 metros had fractional increases in home values of less than a percentage point, but there were some with increases in excess of 5 percentage points, including outsized gains of almost 13% in the Sumter, SC area and over 10% in the Enid, OK 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 may be exaggerated.
That said, there were also 18 metro areas where home values were lower compared with the same period one year ago. With five markets sporting value declines compared to a year ago, Florida leads the way, but Louisiana had four, so the two stated accounted for half of the markets with year-over-year declines. No other state had more than two metros with lower annual values.
Housing markets conditions remain fairly soggy, but all indications are that home prices (and hence values) are poised to climb again in 2025, and the first upward steps of the year are usually seen late in the first quarter as the "spring homebuying season" gets underway.
| Value changes from a sampling of major metro areas | Percent value increase since 3Q24 |
| Springfield, MA | 5.86% |
| Gainesville, GA | 9.56% |
| Hattiesburg, MS | 4.19% |
| Billings, MT | 2.58% |
| Provo-Orem, UT | 4.94% |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 3.19% |
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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