Home Prices Continue To Soar

Home price appreciation continues to soar, with both the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices and the Federal Finance Housing Agency’s House Price Index posting significant gains.

The Case-Shiller Indices had the highest YOY price gains in its 35-year history. The National Index showed a 20.6% YOY increase in March. The 10-City Composite index rose 19.5%, while the 20-City Composite was up 21.1% YOY.

Month-over-month, the seasonally adjusted National Index rose 2.1%, the 10-City rose 2.2%, and the 20-City rose 2.4%. All 20 cities saw price gains both before and after adjustment.

Tampa (+34.8%), Phoenix (+32.4%), and Miami (+32%) led the surge. Seventeen of the 20 cities had higher price increases YOY in March 2022 than in February 2022.

“The strength of the Composite indices suggests very broad strength in the housing market, which we continue to observe. All 20 cities saw double-digit price increases for the 12 months ended in March, and price growth in 17 cities accelerated relative to February’s report,” said Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director at S&P DJI.

“March’s price increase ranked in the top quintile of historical experience for every city, and in the top decile for 19 of them.”

At the same time, the FHFA’s HPI reported that house prices rose 18.7% from Q1 2021 to Q1 2022 and were up 4.6% compared to Q4 2021.

“High appreciation rates continued across housing markets during the first quarter of 2022,” said William Doerner, Ph.D., Supervisory Economist in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. 

“Strong demand coupled with tight supply have kept prices climbing. Through the end of March, higher mortgage rates have not yet translated into slower ​​price gains, but new home sales have dropped during the last few months, with a significant falloff in April.”

New home sales tanked in April by 16.6%, the most in almost nine years, to an annualized rate of 591,000. Economists had predicted a rate of 749,000.

Prices rose YOY in all 50 states and D.C., with the highest gains in Florida (29.8%), Arizona (27.5%), Utah (26.8%), Tennessee (25.8%), and Idaho (25.5%).

“Mortgages are becoming more expensive as the Federal Reserve has begun to ratchet up interest rates, suggesting that the macroeconomic environment may not support extraordinary home price growth for much longer. Although one can safely predict that price gains will begin to decelerate, the timing of the deceleration is a more difficult call,” Lazzara noted.