Forget the West. If you want to make money in housing, buy and sell in New England.

According to the latest federal government statistics, prices rose faster in Massachusetts last year than any other state in the country. And New Hampshire was fourth.

Better yet, they were two of only four states which experienced double-digit inflation in 1999. Sandwiched in between were Minnesota and Colorado.

Prices increased an average of 12.6 percent in Massachusetts last year, on top of a 7.8 percent gain in 1998 and pretty near double the national average increase of 6.4 percent. And this doesn't even include new houses, which tend to lead the market in terms of price hikes. Or expensive houses that cost more than $252,700.

Minnesota saw its average price climb 11.3 percent, followed by Colorado, up 11.2 percent; New Hampshire, up 10.4 percent, and Michigan, up 9.1 percent.

The figures come from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight and measure price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same single-family houses financed by loans touched in some way by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation's two largest housing finance institutions.

OFHEO is the independent agency within the Department of Housing and Urban Development that regulates Fannie and Freddie, government-chartered enterprises that are charged with generating a continual supply of mortgage money for local lenders and their customers. Together, they buy more than half of all mortgages for their own portfolios or pooling into securities for sale to investors throughout the world.

Actually, last year's top five performers should come as no surprise. For the most part, they have been the states with the best price appreciation during the last five years.

What is surprising, though, is that several of the fastest growing Mountain states turned in rather poor results. The average price was up just 1.2 percent in both Idaho and Nevada, and only 2 percent in Utah.

Regionally, the Pacific division (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington) was the only one to experience notably slower growth in 1999 than in '98, 6 percent vs. 8 percent. But it didn't do as badly as the East South Central division (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee), which had the slowest rate of appreciation, just 4.5 percent.

Since 1995, however, every region has done well. Only the Middle Atlanta states (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey) didn't register an average increase of greater than 20 percent. But at 18.8 percent, it was close.

For the country as a whole, the average increased 26.1 percent during the five-year period. But the West North Central region (North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri) did best at 31.4 percent.

OFHEO's house price index is published quarterly.

Published: March 15, 2000

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When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.