Category: News

So, what’s going on with house prices?

As of March 11, 2023, as the data trickles in, we know the following:

• For February 2023, Realtor.com reported an annual 7.8% increase in the median price of homes for sale.
• For January 2023, Zillow’s US Home Value Index was up 8.7%, while the Census Bureau reported a -0.7% decline in the median sales price of new houses. Freddie Mac’s House Price Index was in the middle, with a 2.4% year-over-year increase.
• For December 2022, the US Case-Shiller index was up 5.8%. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported two numbers — an 11.8% increase based on the All Transactions HPI and a 6.6% increase based on the Purchase Only HPI.

What we pay for a house is determined by a myriad of interconnected factors–how much we make; how we feel about the future; the state of the economy; the availability of properties for sale, …. Aggregate indicators reflecting these factors are routinely published, duly reported, and oftentimes present contradictory signals. Making sense of them is hard. All we want to know is: How will this impact house prices?  And pretty please, How will this impact house prices in my backyard?