WASHINGTON, DC–Two separate reports illustrate the ongoing strength of the US housing market, despite a slight blip experienced in sales in recent months.
One report, which was released Thursday morning, was the Federal Housing Finance Agency's seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index. The other was by the National Association of Realtors.
According to the FHFA, the HPI rose in January, up 0.8% from the previous month. Also, the previously reported 0.3% increase in December was revised upward to 0.4%. From January 2017 to January 2018, house prices were up 7.3%.
For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from December 2017 to January 2018 ranged from -0.7% in the West South Central division to +1.2% in the New England and Pacific divisions. The 12-month changes were all positive, ranging from +5.1% in the West South Central division to +10% in the Mountain division.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales rose 3% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.54 million. The increase came following two months of declining sales in January and December. “A big jump in existing sales in the South and West last month helped the housing market recover from a two-month sales slump,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, in a prepared statement. However, even as seasonal inventory gains helped boost sales last month, home prices – especially in the West – shot up considerably. Affordability continues to be a pressing issue because new and existing housing supply is still severely subpar.”
The median existing-home price for all housing types in February was $241,700, up 5.9% from February 2017 ($228,200). February's price increase marks the 72nd straight month of year-over-year gains.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
