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TH E M R EP O RT | 9 MDWELL Paying the Price The West and South claim the nation's top-performing markets, while metros in the Northeast see little growth. W ith tight inventory, high demand, and bidding wars breaking out left and right, housing prices are on the rise—even despite recent upticks in mortgage rates. But according to a recent Home Data Index released by Clear Capital, that growth isn't consistent across the country. While markets in the West and South parts of the nation are seeing the gains in price growth—as well as ever-shortening days-on-market stats—the Northeast is a whole different ball game. Littered with low growth and a high saturation of distressed properties, markets all the way from Maryland to Virginia are down on their luck. But despite these market differences, there's one thing that will unite buyers from all stretches of the country this spring: They'll have to act fast. "What's great news for homeowners, particularly those looking to get out of negative equity or sell outright, is unfortunately bad news for prospective buyers," said Dr. Alex Villacorta, VP of Research and Analytics at Clear Capital. "This springtime uptick in demand is likely to put buyers in a major time pinch in areas where marketing time is already lightning fast." Source: Clear Capital March 2017 Home Data Index THRIVING MARKET San Antonio, Texas The nation's fastest-growing metropolitan market, San Antonio is seeing home prices jump at 1.8 percent per quarter—twice as fast as the national average. Over the year, home prices in San Antonio rose 12.2 percent. THRIVING MARKET Jacksonville, Florida The No. 2 top-performing market, Jacksonville saw increases in home prices for both the quarter and the year, jumping 1.7 and 10.8 percent, respectively. THRIVING MARKET Nashville-Davidson- Murfreesboro, Tennessee The Nashville metro area is the third highest performing market, coming in with a 10.5 percent rise in home prices over the year. THRIVING MARKET Fresno, California With an 8.8 percent rise in home prices for the year and a 1.6 percent jump for the quarter, Fresno is the nation's No. 4 top-performing market. THRIVING MARKET Portland and Beaverton, Oregon/ Vancouver, Washington Spanning parts of both Oregon and Washington, the No. 5 highest performing market saw an 11.3 percent rise in home prices for the year. WEAK MARKET San Jose- Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California The San Jose metro takes the cake as the nation's worst market, recording absolutely zero price growth in the last quarter. Over the year, prices jumped just 2.1 percent—one of the lowest annual rates in the country. WEAK MARKET Providence, Rhode Island/New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts The second lowest- performing metro, home prices the Providence-Falls River market rose just 0.1 percent in the last quarter. WEAK MARKET Baltimore, Maryland With a rapid drop in growth from 1 percent to just 0.2 percent over the month—the nation's largest single-month change—Baltimore comes in as the third lowest- performing market in the country. WEAK MARKET Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Newport News, Virginia Annual growth of just 1.9 percent—the country's lowest year-over-year growth rate this month—make the Virginia Beach market the fourth worst- performing market in the U.S. WEAK MARKET Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Coming in as the nation's fifth-worst market this month, Pittsburgh saw home prices rise just 0.3 percent for the quarter and 2.3 percent over the year. Top 5 Markets Bottom 5 Markets