WASHINGTON — The housing markets in Seattle, Portland and Denver are still red hot, but price appreciation in D.C. remains one of the smallest among the nation’s biggest cities.
The monthly S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported that prices in the nation’s 20 largest cities in January were up an average of 5.7 percent from a year ago, but the annual gain in Seattle was 11.3 percent.
In Portland, Oregon, prices were up 9.7 percent. In Denver, the year-over-year gain was 9.2 percent.
The report said in the D.C. metro area, home prices were up 3.9 percent from a year ago in January, the second lowest annual gain among big cities – ahead of only New York City’s 3.2 percent annual gain and tied with a 3.9 percent advance in Cleveland.
Few experts in the residential housing industry are concerned about moderately rising interest rates on future sales.
“The recent action by the Federal Reserve raising the target for the Fed funds rate by a quarter percentage point is expected to add less than a quarter percentage point to mortgage rates in the near future,” said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
“Given the market’s current strength and the economy, the small increase in interest rates isn’t expected to dampen home buying. If we see three or four additional increases this year, rising mortgage rates could become a concern,” he said.
Median prices in D.C. rose 0.3 percent from December to January, the same month-over-month increase recorded in December.
