Home Values In Greater Seattle Growing Twice as Fast as San Francisco's

Seattle and San Jose, Calif. have left San Francisco's housing market in the dust, with metro home values rising at double-digit rates, according to the September Zillow Real Estate Market Report

- Home values in booming West Coast markets are appreciating the fastest. Seattle home values rose 12.4 percent over the past year, and San Jose, Calif. home values rose 10 percent.

- San Francisco home values are appreciating more slowly than the national average, at 6 percent.

- This is the ninth month in a row that Seattle has led the nation in home value appreciation.

- U.S. home values rose 6.9 percent over the past year, to a Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) of $202,700.

- Rents across the country are up 2.1 percent year-over-year, to a Zillow Rent Index (ZRI) of $1,430 per month. Rents in Riverside, Calif. and Seattle are appreciating the fastest.

News provided by

Zillow

Oct 26, 2017, 08:00 ET

SEATTLE, Oct. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Booming West Coast markets Seattle and San Jose, Calif. are leading the nation in home value growth. After one of the most competitive home shopping seasons in recent history, demand for homes in the West remains high as people flood the area for jobs.

Nationally, home values are 6.9 percent more expensive than a year ago, with the median U.S. home now worth $202,700, according to the September Zillow® Real Estate Market Report.

Seattle and San Jose reported double-digit home value appreciation over the past year. In Seattle, home values are 12.4 percent higher than at this time last year, and home values are just over 10 percent higher in San Jose. Following these two metros in home value growth are Las Vegas, Charlotte, N.C. and Orlando, Fla. This is the ninth month in a row that Seattle home values have been the fastest growing in the nationⁱ.

Fastest Appreciating U.S. Housing Markets
Rank	Metro Area	Median Home Value	Year-over-Year Growth
1	Seattle	$455,800	12.4%
2	San Jose, Calif.	$1,052,500	10.3%
3	Las Vegas	$233,600	10.2%
4	Charlotte, N.C.	$178,700	9.0%
5	Orlando, Fla.	$209,600	8.9%

Home shopping season has ended, but demand for homes remains high, while inventory remains at record-level lows. According to the 2017 Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Reportⁱⁱ, the typical buyer spends just over four months searching, and almost half of all buyers don't get the first home on which they make an offer. Housing markets on the West Coast are exceptionally tight, but the theme of tight inventory echoes across the country.

"In these West Coast markets, heightened demand is being met with limited supply of homes for sale, which naturally causes prices to rise," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. "That limited supply and high demand dynamic is a widespread phenomenon impacting high-growth metros like Seattle, as well as slower-moving markets, like Indianapolis. It might be easy to assume another bubble is emerging, with home values growing 10 or 12 percent per year, but don't worry. The market is reacting to basic economic laws, and is behaving exactly the way we would expect it to given good overall growth, limited supply of homes for sale and decent housing affordability thanks to low mortgage interest rates."

Rental prices on the West Coast are also rising rapidly. Riverside, Calif. and Seattle reported the greatest annual rent appreciation among the 35 largest U.S. metros. In Riverside, rent is 6 percent more expensive than at this time last year, and 5.5 percent more expensive in Seattle. The median rental price in the U.S. is $1,430 per month, up 2 percent over the past year.

Fastest Appreciating U.S. Rental Markets
Rank	Metro Area	Median Rent	Year-over-Year Growth
1	Riverside, Calif.	$1,833	6.0%
2	Seattle	$2,189	5.5%
3	Minneapolis	$1,617	5.1%
4	Portland, Ore.	$1,863	4.7%
5	Los Angeles	$2,714	4.5%

Tight inventory and strong demand are two factors driving up home values; across the U.S., there are 12 percent fewer homes to choose from than a year ago. Inventory has dropped most significantly in San Jose, Seattle and San Diego over the past year. In San Jose, there are 60 percent fewer homes on the market than at this time last year, and 35 percent fewer in Seattle and San Diego.

Mortgage rates^ⁱⁱⁱ on Zillow ended the month of September at 3.70 percent, the lowest month-ending rate since May 2017. Mortgage rates on Zillow hit a high of 3.72 percent in the last few days of the month^{^iv}with the month low at 3.56 percent^{^v}. Zillow's real-time mortgage rates are based on thousands of custom mortgage quotes submitted daily to anonymous borrowers on the Zillow Mortgages site and reflect the most recent changes in the market.

Metropolitan Area	Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI)	ZHVI Year-Over-Year Change	Zillow Rent Index (ZRI)	ZRI Year-Over-Year Change	Year-over-Year Inventory Change
United States	$202,700	6.9%	$1,430	2.1%	-12.3%
New York/Northern New Jersey	$426,300	7.8%	$2,388	0.2%	-18.0%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$613,200	5.7%	$2,714	4.5%	-26.5%
Chicago, IL	$213,600	6.4%	$1,650	0.9%	-10.6%
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX	$214,800	8.9%	$1,592	3.0%	27.7%
Philadelphia, PA	$218,200	3.1%	$1,578	0.4%	-15.7%
Houston	$182,200	4.2%	$1,531	-2.4%	4.7%
Washington, DC	$385,300	3.1%	$2,131	0.6%	-13.7%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL	$257,900	7.1%	$1,849	-1.5%	-0.4%
Atlanta, GA	$182,700	7.9%	$1,374	4.3%	-13.3%
Boston, MA	$430,700	7.0%	$2,362	2.3%	-19.7%
San Francisco, CA	$865,400	6.0%	$3,376	-0.4%	-32.9%
Detroit, MI	$142,400	8.5%	$1,174	0.7%	-20.0%
Riverside, CA	$333,000	6.0%	$1,833	6.0%	-21.1%
Phoenix, AZ	$240,500	6.5%	$1,339	3.5%	-12.9%
Seattle, WA	$455,800	12.4%	$2,189	5.5%	-35.2%
Minneapolis-St Paul, MN	$247,200	6.6%	$1,617	5.1%	-23.7%
San Diego, CA	$553,900	6.5%	$2,528	4.3%	-34.7%
St. Louis, MO	$148,300	1.4%	$1,139	1.6%	-10.6%
Tampa, FL	$188,300	8.8%	$1,363	2.4%	-22.4%
Baltimore, MD	$262,000	3.8%	$1,729	0.2%	-21.1%
Denver, CO	$372,800	7.2%	$2,034	1.5%	-22.1%
Pittsburgh	$137,800	4.6%	$1,075	-1.0%	-10.3%
Portland, OR	$369,700	7.2%	$1,863	4.7%	0.4%
Charlotte, NC	$178,700	9.0%	$1,282	3.8%	-12.3%
Sacramento, CA	$373,600	8.1%	n/a	n/a	-24.7%
San Antonio	$166,100	7.3%	$1,334	1.1%	-4.0%
Orlando, FL	$209,600	8.9%	$1,422	3.5%	-16.8%
Cincinnati, OH	$154,100	5.8%	$1,272	2.9%	-19.0%
Cleveland, OH	$136,300	6.7%	$1,139	-0.5%	-12.9%
Kansas City, MO	$161,100	6.7%	$1,267	2.8%	3.6%
Las Vegas, NV	$233,600	10.2%	n/a	n/a	-26.2%
Columbus, OH	$166,400	6.0%	$1,320	2.5%	-26.6%
Indianapolis, IN	$138,700	4.3%	$1,202	0.9%	-21.1%
San Jose, CA	$1,052,500	10.3%	$3,486	-0.3%	-60.1%
Austin	$274,700	6.5%	$1,694	-0.7%	4.4%

Zillow

Zillow® is the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connecting them with the best local professionals who can help. In addition, Zillow operates an industry-leading economics and analytics bureau led by Zillow's Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. Dr. Gudell and her team of economists and data analysts produce extensive housing data and research covering more than 450 markets at Zillow Real Estate Research. Zillow also sponsors the quarterly Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey, which asks more than 100 leading economists, real estate experts and investment and market strategists to predict the path of the Zillow Home Value Index over the next five years. Launched in 2006, Zillow is owned and operated by Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z and ZG), and headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow is a registered trademark of Zillow, Inc.

ⁱ Among the 35 largest U.S. metros areas.

ⁱⁱ The 2017 Zillow Group Report is the 2^nd annual largest-ever survey of U.S. home buyers, sellers, owners and renters, and asked more than 13,000 U.S. residents aged 18 to 75 about their homes – how they search for them, pay for them, maintain and improve them, and what frustrations and aspirations color their decisions. The full report is available for free to the public at www.zillow.com/report.

ⁱⁱⁱ Mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage.

^iv Month high on September 28, 2017.

^v Month low occurred on September 6, 7 and 8, 2017.

SOURCE Zillow