Housing Market First Quarter 2009

This represents significant deceleration of price declines at least at the quarterly level, as home prices fell by 3.3% in the previous quarter (fourth quarter of 2008) and 8.3% on an annual basis.

There was a signficant variation of housing market performance across divisions. As indicated by the FHFA seasonally-adjusted, purchase-only indexes, six of the nine Census Divisions experienced price declines in the latest quarter:

• The Mountain Census Division experienced the largest quarterly decline of 3.1 percent
• The New England Division housing market registered the strongest performance, as home prices increased by 1.3 percent from their December 2008 levels.

There was also significant variation in housing market performance across states as seasonally-adjusted, purchase-only home prices rose in the latest quarter in 20 states. On an annual basis, however, home prices fell in 46 states and Washington, D.C.

Among the 25 most-populated metropolitan areas in the U.S., the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division registered the worst four-quarter performance as home prices plunged 37.6 percent between the first quarters of 2008 and 2009. The Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division was the best performer with a minimal price increase of 0.1 percent.