Back to the future

Is it dejà vu all over again?

Four of the top 10 metropolitan areas of the United States with the highest rates of one-year house-price appreciation are on the Gulf Coast: Sarasota, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers and Naples.

The fourth-quarter data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency is reminiscent of the last boom, when annual double-digit growth in house-price appreciation distorted the residential real estate market.

The federal agency measures changes in house prices by tracking purchases and mortgage refinancings. Nationally, house prices rose 5.6% over the year ending in the fourth quarter by that measure.

The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area posted more moderate growth than the rest of the Gulf Coast. For the year ending Dec. 31, house prices rose 9.06%. Over five years, house prices climbed 26.1%.