A potential buyer walks in for a viewing during an open house on May 25, 2021 in Parkland, Fla.
Karin Jean | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
Fierce competition and a lack of supply in the real estate market are heating up prices again.
Nationally, home prices in March were 0.7% higher than in March 2022, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index said Tuesday.
“The modest home price gains we saw a month ago accelerated in March 2023,” Craig J. Lazzara, managing director of S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a release. “Two months of house price increases do not lead to a clear recovery, but the March results suggest that the decline in house prices that began in June 2022 may be over.”
The 10-city composite index, which includes the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas, fell 0.8% year-over-year, compared with 0.5% in the previous month. The 20-city composite index, which includes the Dallas-Fort Worth and Detroit areas, fell 1.1 percent, down from an annual gain of 0.4 percent in the previous month.
However, house prices are rising month by month. On a seasonally adjusted basis, national prices rose 0.4% in March from February. The 10-city composite rose 0.6 percent and the 20-city composite rose 0.5 percent.
Lazzara also noted that the nationwide acceleration in price increases is also evident at a more granular level. Before seasonal adjustment, prices rose in all 20 cities in March (compared to 12 in February), and all 20 cities saw price increases accelerate between February and March.
Miami, Tampa and Charlotte had the highest year-over-year increases among the 20 cities in March. Charlotte replaced Atlanta for third. Home prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities compared with a year ago, with only Chicago up 0.4%.
“One of the most interesting aspects of our report remains its clear regional variation,” Lazzara added. “The farther west we look, the lower the prices, and Seattle (-12.4%) is now at the bottom of the league ahead of San Francisco (-11.2%). It’s no surprise that the Southeast (+5.4%) remains the strongest region in the country regions, while the West (-6.2%) remains the weakest.”