Family homes in the USA increased in price by 6.7% year-on-year, according to the latest research.
Prices – which included distressed sales – rose by 2.1% between February and March 2016.
Experts expect the rate of rise to fall to 0.7% for April, putting the brakes on year-on-year increases.
Economists at research firm CoreLogic expect the annual increase to slow to 5.3%.
House prices in the US have posted increases for 49 months in a row.
They are now an average 5.3% below peak average prices recorded in April 2006. Prices are likely to climb back to this level by April 2017.
West leads the market
“Putting money into residential property helped keep the US economy on track during the first quarter of this year,” said Dr Frank Northaft, the firm’s chief economist.
“Residential investment showed the strongest gain since 2012.
“Low interest rates and rising construction levels are good news for homebuyers and the economy.”
The CoreLogic report shows that US home prices bottomed out five years ago and have increased in value by 40%.
“Prices have gone up most in the West,” said Northaft. “Home prices in the West are still posting some double digit returns.”
Record house price increases
State-by-state the research found:
- 12 states posted record house prices – Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Louisiana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
- No states posted price falls
- The five states with the largest year-on-year increases were Washington (13%), Colorado (10%), Oregon (10%), Florida (9.3%) and New York (8.2%)
- The five states with the largest monthly price increases were Washington (12.6%), Oregon (10.6%), Colorado (9.6%), New York (9%) and New Mexico (8.7%)
- The five states with prices the farthest away from peak values are Nevada (29.7%), Rhode Island (25.9%), Florida (24.9%), Maryland (23.6%) and Arizona (23.4%)
The report also lists over and undervalued metropolitan centres:
Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida and Washington DC are tagged as overvalued because current house prices have risen above sustainable levels.
Denver booked a 10.9% increase in average prices year-on-year.
San Diego and San Francisco, California, were both listed as undervalued as price growth is lagging the expected levels.
Market conditions in Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California, Las Vegas, Nevada and Chicago, Illinois, were all tagged as normal.
