Home prices still catching up

House prices along the Gulf Coast continue to rise, but they have a ways to catch up to where they were five years ago.

According to first quarter data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, house prices in the region remain 30% or more below prices five years ago. The government agency tracks changes in average house prices in repeat sales or refinancings on the same single-family properties. The index is based on mortgage data obtained from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Still, FHFA data from the first quarter show that home prices have risen substantially year-over-year. In fact, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area was ranked 10th in the nation in one-year house-price appreciation, and it was the only Florida metro area in the top 10 by that measure.

One caveat about the data is that sales that don't conform to conventional financing are excluded. For example, cash sales would not be included in this data, a fact that might skew information on second-home markets such as Naples and Sarasota where a significant number of transactions are in cash.