Housing prices set a record in February, up 19.4% YOY and 2.1% from January 2022, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) latest House Price Index (HPI).
Seasonally adjusted monthly house price changes from January to February ranged from +1.3% in the East North Central division to +2.9% in the South Atlantic division.
The 12-month changes ranged from +15.3 percent in the East North Central division to +24.3 percent in the Mountain division.
“House prices rose to set a new historical record in February,” said Will Doerner, Ph.D., Supervisory Economist in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics.
“Acceleration approached twice the monthly rate as seen a year ago. Housing prices continue to rise owing in part to supply constraints.”
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported similar numbers at the same time. It showed a 19.8% annual gain in February, up from 19.1% in January and the third-highest reading in the history of the index.
The 10-City Composite rose from 17.3% to 18.6% while the 20-City Composite saw a 20.2% YOY gain, up from 18.9% in January.
“U.S. home prices continued to advance at a very rapid pace in February,” says Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director at S&P DJI.
“The National Composite’s 19.8% year-over-year change for February was the third-highest reading in 35 years of history. That level of price growth suggests broad strength in the housing market, which is exactly what we continue to observe.”
However, he added that the “macroeconomic environment is evolving rapidly and may not support extraordinary home price growth for much longer… We may soon begin to see the impact of increasing mortgage rates on home prices.”