Housing high notes reach new crescendo across markets

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Published Date 5/12/2025

When Wicked’s Elphaba sang the song “Defying Gravity” in the musical, she must have been talking about home prices. Realtor’s Melissa Dittmann Tracey reports that the majority of housing markets tracked by NAR posted median home price increases in the first quarter, with many hitting all-time highs.

“Homeowners are the clear winners in the housing market, continuing to experience strong appreciation as home prices remain on a steady upward march nationwide,” says Tracey, who adds that some markets, like Syracuse, NY, are still seeing double-digit gains. Syracuse has evidently seen the largest home price increase in the country over the past year—up about 18% annually, according to the NAR in its latest quarterly report.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun says, “Most metro markets continue to set new record highs for home prices,” noting that more than 80% of metro areas saw home price increases in the first quarter.

Compared to a year ago, median home pricing for existing single-family homes rose 3.4% to $402,300. The year before? Nearly 5%, indicating that while prices are still climbing, the pace of growth has slowed somewhat.

Look to the Northeast for some of the highest home price increases over the past year, followed by the Midwest and the West. The South, while experiencing the largest share of existing-home sales in the first quarter, posted the slowest annual price appreciation.

As for price declines, nearly 17% of the 228 markets tracked—or 38—saw home prices go down in the first quarter. “That’s up from 11% in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to NAR’s latest housing report,” says Tracey, but adds that Yun says there ’s no reason for alarm. Think Boise, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle. Yun says with solid job growth, prices would probably recover. Austin, San Antonio, Huntsville, Myrtle Beach, Raleigh and many Florida markets are areas that could rebound fairly quickly, he says.

In case you're wondering, housing inventory is growing—mostly in Southern markets from an uptick in new-home construction. But Yun reminds us that prices have risen so much over recent years that homeowners are still selling at a profit. And that with so much new job creation and people from other states moving into places like Florida and Texas, he thinks it’s going to be a short-phased decline.

Whatever happened to distress sales like foreclosures, short sales and mortgage defaults? Yun says they continue to be at historically low levels. “It’s still a very good time to be a homeowner,” Yun says. “About 88 million homeowners across the country are consistently smiling because they’re seeing large home price gains. This is a sizable wealth gain at a time when the stock market has undergone some volatility.”

Realtor, TBWS

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