Single-Family Home Prices Climb at Highest Rate on Record

Growth in single-family home prices in the U.S. hit a record in March, led by surging prices across the Sun Belt markets. Home prices jumped 20.6% year-over-year in March, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index which measures average home prices across the nation’s nine U.S. census divisions. Since April 2021, home prices have been rising at the fastest rates in the index’s 35 year-history. The annual increase in March was the largest on record and was up from the 20.0% year-over-year increase in February. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index posted a 21.2% annual gain in March, up from 20.3% the previous month. Seventeen of the 20 cities reported higher year-over-year price increases in March 2022 compared to February 2022. And all the cities in the index recorded double-digit price increases over the past year, with Sun Belt cities logging the biggest gains. Tampa led with an annual home price increase of 34.8%, overtaking Phoenix (32.4%) which had been in the #1 spot for nearly three years. Those two cities were followed by Miami (32.0%) and Dallas (30.7%). The smallest year-over-year home price gains in March were seen in Minneapolis (12.4%), Washington, DC (12.9%) and Chicago (13.0%).