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You’ll Never Guess Which States Have the Fastest-Growing Home Prices

It’s not exactly news that home prices have been steadily shooting up. Those trying to buy or sell a home are bemoaning—or celebrating, as the case may be—the trend.

But here’s the real news: When it comes to the states seeing the biggest year-over-year boost in sales prices, already-pricey New York and California don’t top the list. Instead, other Western states dominate.

Washington state rose to the top of the CoreLogic home price report for February: The cost of buying a single-family home that month surged 12.4% year over year. The data and analytics provider ranked states by its home price index, which is based on sold prices.

Nationally, the prices of single-family homes were up 6.8% year over year from February 2015 to February 2016.

Washington was followed by a none-too-shabby annual 10.5% hike in Colorado, 10.2% rise in Florida, and 9.3% jump in Oregon. In particular, the Western states are likely enjoying some overflow from titanically priced Silicon Valley, which has sent some tech companies—and their workers—on the prowl for lower cost (but maybe not for long) hubs.

Nevada, which was walloped by the foreclosure crisis, saw prices accelerate 8.6%, and Idaho, better known for its potatoes than its booming housing market, experienced an 8.4% price bump. Another surprise: South Carolina wasn’t far behind, at 8.2%.

“We were ground zero for the housing bust,” Las Vegas real estate broker Bryan Kyle of First Serve Realty says of his state. “Our homes here went down to about half of what they were at the height of the market.”

Over the past few years, Las Vegas prices have begun climbing back up. But they’re still “nowhere near” what they were at the peak, he says, and he doesn’t expect them to get back there anytime soon.

The rising prices can be attributed, in part, to folks who lost their homes in the crisis, rebuilt their credit and savings, and are now seeking to buy another home, Kyle says.

But the number of residences for sale is limited as many investors flocked to the state to pick up homes on the cheap during the recession, he says. And the lack of dwellings on the market is driving costs right up.

Meanwhile, home sale prices rose annually by the smallest percentage in Wyoming, at just 0.4%, according to the report.

“We’ve been in an economic downturn over here” as the state’s energy industry has taken a hit, says Tyler Surrell, a real estate agent at Buffalo, WY–based Mountain West Realtors.

There have been recent layoffs in Wyoming’s coal mining industry, and lower gas prices at the pump are hurting the state’s oil industry. About 8,800 jobs were lost year over year through February in the state, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s led to less demand for new homes as fewer residents, at least those who stay in the state, can afford them.

Wyoming wasn’t the only state to see less-than-stellar home price growth. It was followed by 0.5% in Louisiana and West Virginia; 1.6% in New Jersey; 2.2% in Maryland and Virginia; and 2.8% in Maine.

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