While the housing market in the South still has room for improvement, states and metropolitan areas in that region are showing the strongest growth, according to Freddie Mac's latest Multi-Indicator Market Index.
The national MiMi value in March was 83.8, an improvement of 1% from the previous month and 7.23% from a year earlier. Overall the index has risen 41% from the all-time low recorded in October 2010, but it remains well off from the all-time high of 121.7.
The highest scores were mostly in the West. The District of Columbia posted the top value at 102, with Hawaii, Colorado, Montana and Utah rounding out the top five. This is the first time that North Dakota was not among the top five states since the index launched in 2014.
But three of the five states with the highest percentage growth were in the Southeast. Tennessee's score rose 2.49% from March, followed by Mississippi, Oregon, Florida and Massachusetts.
On a metropolitan level, Chattanooga, Tenn., ranked first in terms of month-over-month improvement, with a 3.15% increase. Other cities ranking in the top five were Nashville, Tenn., Oxnard, Calif., Knoxville, Tenn., and Orlando, Fla.
Orlando was also the most improved city year over year, at 19.54%. Colorado's 15.54% improvement from a year earlier was best among states.
"Pent up demand for homes and near record-low mortgage rates are bolstering housing markets across the country," Freddie's deputy chief economist, Len Kief, said in a news release Wednesday. "The impact of rising house prices coupled with tight supplies of for-sale homes in many markets has the potential to make it difficult for the typical family to buy a home despite these low mortgage rates."
