Utah home prices up 5.2%

Get ready to pay more for a home.

Utah home prices rose 5.29 percent for the 12 months ended Dec. 31 — the highest gain in seven years — boosting the state's house-price ranking to No. 37 among all states and the District of Columbia, according to a report released Tuesday by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

The last year Utah appreciation showed a greater increase was in 1997, when house prices rose 6.17 percent.

Utah's jump in home values is good news, many contend, considering that the state in recent years has lagged behind the rest of the nation in rising values.

For the 12 months ended Sept. 30, Utah ranked 50th among all states and the District of Columbia in house price appreciation. In 2003, Utah witnessed a mere 1.38 percent rise in home values. In 2002, prices increased 1.61 percent.

Debra Sjoblom, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, said the latest numbers show a "rebound" in Utah's housing market.

"I would certainly think it is welcome news, and I think it's certainly a plus that we're not at the top of the pack, because we don't want to be ever considered a bubble, where it's gone up so high and so rapidly that it's going to pop."

Nevada ranked first in the nation in house price appreciation at 32.38 percent. Indiana showed the lowest appreciation at 3.70 percent.

Still, Utah's house appreciation is less than half the U.S. average. Nationally, the report said, home prices in 2004 increased 11.17 percent.

Armando Falcon Jr., OFHEO director, said that in the fourth quarter U.S. home appreciation fell to 1.69 percent, "a sharp deceleration from the revised quarterly appreciation during the third quarter" of 4.79 percent.

"This report reflects a slowing of the tremendous house price appreciation we've seen recently, but it is still growing at a strong pace," Falcon said in a prepared statement. "Despite the deceleration, house prices continue to outpace the slower growth of prices of non-housing goods and services incorporated in the Consumer Price Index."

At the national level, 31 of 265 metropolitan areas tracked in the fourth quarter experienced negative house price growth, many in the South Atlantic, East North Central, Pacific and New England areas.

House appreciation was varied among Utah cities.