NAR reported that home-price appreciation was flat between the second and third quarters. On a year-over-year basis, the median price for an existing single-family home reached $426,800, up 1.7%. These gains varied significantly by location. In the Northeast, the median home price was up 6% year over year to $540,000. In the Midwest, prices rose 4.2% to $331,100. In the South, the median price of $372,800 was up slightly (0.5%), while the West saw prices backtrack by 0.1% to $633,900.
For the Washington Post's Department of Data, Andrew Van Dam looks at historical home prices in cities, dating back to 1890. We often treat buying a house in the United States as an investment that grows faster than inflation. In some cities like Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle, with relatively high house prices, this is definitely the case. In other cities, like Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, house prices mostly stuck with inflation, no different from spaghetti or sprockets.