New England continues to reveal some of the nation's greatest strength in home price appreciation as three cities and five states are among those ranked tops in appreciation growth.

The previously booming West revealed spotty home price appreciation strength with some regions at the top of the heap and others at the bottom.

In the balance, home price appreciation nationwide was up 6.05 percent, revealing the continued overall strength in the economy's residential real estate sector, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's (OFHEO) first quarter House Price Index (HPI).

Nevertheless, along with the generally positive findings in home price appreciation, OFHEO issued some words of caution.

"As housing markets typically perform well in periods of economic growth, the current market characteristics do not suggest comparable declines to those we observed in previous downturns. On the other hand, housing prices cannot appreciate at rates substantially greater than those of general inflation indefinitely," the report said.

OFHEO's quarterly HPI tracks average house price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same single-family properties. The index is based on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac data -- more than 15 million repeat transactions over the past 27 years.

MSA report

The Barnstable-Yarmouth, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was ranked No. 1 with a 13.45 percent home price appreciation in the year ended March 31, 2002.

Rounding out the Top 10 in home price appreciation, were Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, CA, 12.50 percent; Brockton, MA, 12.41 percent; Nashua, NH, 12.27 percent; Fort Lauderdale, FL, 11.96 percent; Modesto, CA, 11.87 percent; San Luis Obispo-Atascadero-Paso Robles, CA, 11.83 percent; Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA, 11.81 percent; Miami, FL, 11.42 percent; Nassau-Suffolk, NY, 11.37 percent.

At the bottom the only MSA showing price depreciation was San Jose, CA, considered the capital of Silicon Valley -- high tech's ground zero -- which dipped 3.79 percent. Rounding out the bottom five were Austin-San Marcos, TX, up only 1.08 percent; San Francisco, CA, up 1.31 percent; Eugene-Springfield, OR, up 1.66 percent and Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT, up 1.94 percent.

Top states

Home price appreciation by state found eastern states with the most strength. Rhode Island was at the top with 12.08 percent home price appreciation for the year ended March 31, 2002, followed by District of Columbia, 11.65 percent; Massachusetts, 10.06 percent; New Hampshire, 9.85 percent; New Jersey, 9.36 percent; Minnesota, 8.96 percent; Maine, 8.61 percent; Florida, 8.29 percent; Connecticut, 7.95 percent and Maryland, 7.78 percent. The best the west could do was a 7.44 percent statewide growth in California during the same period.

Regional differences

The East was on top again, both during the past year and since 1980, when OFHEO looked at regional home price appreciation growth.

New England house prices rose 9.6 percent since the first quarter of 2001 and 322.4 percent since 1980.

Middle Atlantic region saw a 7.9 percent increase during the last year, 231.1 percent since 1980.

Pacific states saw a 6.6 percent increase in a year, 220.6 percent since 1980.

In the West North Central region prices rose 6.5 percent for the last year, 139.0 since 1980.

South Atlantic states's home prices appreciated 6.3 percent in a year, 159.3 percent since 1980.

The East North Central was next with a 4.8 percent rise in home prices in the past year, 162.6 percent since 1980.

Weaker appreciation, 4.3 percent since last year, turned up in the Mountain states where house prices rose 151.6 since 1980.

East South Central states' home prices rose 3.6 percent since the first quarter of 2002, 130.7 percent since 1980.

The smallest gains were in the West South Central region where home prices rose only 3.2 percent for in the past year, only 76.9 percent since 1980.