Where home prices have slowed the most — and one state where prices actually dropped

Location matters when it comes to home price

With the median home price hitting $300,000 for the first time ever last week, choosing your location wisely has never been so important when buying a house. Fortunately, according to new data, there are still a few U.S. locales where home prices are affordable — or even dropping.

This state sees home prices drop

According to the latest Home Price Index report from CoreLogic, home prices have jumped 4 percent over the year. And while that may be true for the nation as a whole, in some states, prices grew much less than that. In one state, they actually dropped.

CoreLogic’s data shows that buyers in North Dakota got the luckiest. Home prices in the state have dipped 1.7 percent since last February.

Though no other states saw prices decline, some did see sub-1 percent increases over the year. In Alaska, for example, they rose just 0.9 percent, while in Louisiana, prices jumped 0.4 percent.

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States with the most home price growth

But buyers in other states didn’t fare as well. According to CoreLogic, Idaho saw home prices spike 10.4 percent over the year, while those in Nevada rose 8.9 percent.

Prices in Utah and Arizona increased the next most, rising 8.7 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively.

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Despite these jumps, CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft says overall, home price growth is trending downward — but maybe not for long.

“During the first two months of the year, home-price growth continued to decelerate,” Nothaft said. “This is the opposite of what we saw the last two years when price growth accelerated early. With the Federal Reserve’s announcement to keep short-term interest rates where they are for the rest of the year, we expect mortgage rates to remain low and be a boost for the spring buying season. A strong buying season could lead to a pickup in home-price growth later this year.”

Get today’s mortgage rates

Want to buy a house in one of these lower-priced markets? Then shop around and see what mortgage rates you qualify for today.