Arizona had the second largest house price appreciation among all states between the first quarters of 2021 and 2022 at 27.5%, with only Florida having a higher figure at 29.8%.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index report for the first quarter 2022 indicated all 50 states and the District of Columbia had house prices increases over the year with the nation at an 18.7% increase.

The Mountain division had the biggest upturn in prices over the year with 24.0%, which makes sense when you consider that out of the top 10 states ranked by price appreciation five were in mountain states: Arizona (2), Utah (3), Idaho (5), Montana (6), and Nevada (7).

Metropolitan area data for all transactions (both purchase and refinance mortgages) indicate that Arizona metros had substantial house price increases over the year at 30.3% in Flagstaff, 30.1% in Phoenix, 27.1% in Yuma, 26.8% in Lake Havasu City-Kingman, 25.5% in Prescott Valley-Prescott, 25.2% in Tucson, and 23.6% in Sierra Vista-Douglas. The all transactions increase for Arizona and the U.S. were 28.7% and 19.4%, respectively.

Annual inflation rose to 8.6% in May, the highest it has been since 1981 based on the Consumer Price Index June 10 release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 12-month change in consumer prices was headed by energy costs, which increased 34.6%, though food prices also contributed by rising over 10 percent for the first time in 41 years (at 10.1%). All items less food and energy increased 6.0% annually. The seasonally adjusted monthly index increased 1.0% in May after rising 0.3% in April. Shelter, gasoline, and food were the largest contributors to the monthly increase, though price escalations were broad-based. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.6% over the month.

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For the first time in nearly 3 years, Phoenix is no longer leading the nation in home price growth. Looking at the year-over-year price increase in March, the title now goes to Tampa, Florida which recorded a 34.8% increase. Phoenix is still second in the nation with an increase of 32.4%. In March, the U.S. overall recorded an annual gain of 20.6% up from 20.0% in the previous month. The housing market does not seem to be slowing down based on these data, as the Phoenix March/February percent change was an increase of 3.0%. Nationally this figure was up 2.6% according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index May 31 release.

 

Author: Valorie H. Rice is the Senior Business Information Specialist at the Economic and Business Research Center (EBRC) in the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. Student Researcher Shaw Zeider contributed to this report.