PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island home price index increased 6.3% year over year in February, higher than the national growth rate of 4.4%, CoreLogic Inc. said Tuesday.
Rhode Island’s HPI growth rate was the second lowest in New England, with Maine leading the region at 10.3%.
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The national increase in February was the second lowest since February 2019, despite maintaining 133 consecutive months of home price growth, Corelogic said.
Tech company layoffs likely affected housing demand on the West Coast, while home price gains are holding steady in some large East Coast metro areas as workers return to the office, according to the report.
“The divergence in home price changes across the U.S. reflects a tale of two housing markets,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. “Declines in the West are due to the tech industry slowdown and a severe lack of affordability after decades of undersupply. The consistent gains in the Southeast and South reflect strong job markets, in-migration patterns and relative affordability due to new home construction.
“But while housing market challenges remain, particularly in light of mortgage rate volatility and the ongoing banking turmoil,” Hepp added, “pent-up homebuyer demand is responding favorably to lower rates in many markets. This trend holds true even in the West, leading to a solid monthly gain in home prices in February. U.S. home prices rose by 0.8% in February, double the month-over-month increase historically seen and indicating that prices in most markets have already bottomed out.”
The year-over-year growth rate of the home-price index in the rest of New England:
- Vermont: 8.9%
- New Hampshire: 6.9%
- Connecticut: 6.6%
- Massachusetts: 2.9%.
