Single-Family Home Prices Decline for Fourth Straight Month

Housing demand has fallen amid rising mortgage rates that are at 15-year highs. As a result, home prices have been trending down recently. While, on a year-over-year basis, home prices continue to increase at a robust clip, the annual rate of acceleration has slowed over the past six months and is now at the lowest level in two years. Home prices fell 0.5% from September to October, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index which measures average home prices across the nation. That was the fourth straight month-over-month decline. On an annual basis, home prices rose 9.2% year-over-year in October, down from the 10.7% jump in September and well below the all-time high of 20.8% in March and April. This pattern of deceleration was apparent at a regional level. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index posted an 8.6% annual gain in October, down from 10.4% the previous month. All 20 cities in the index reported lower price increases in October 2022 compared to September 2022. Some of the biggest month-to-month declines occurred in the West region of the country, with the deepest declines happening in Las Vegas (-1.8%), San Francisco (-1.7%) and Phoenix (-1.6%). On an annual basis, the South Region continued to post some of the nation’s strongest gains, led by Miami (21.0%), Tampa (20.5%) and Charlotte (15.0%). The smallest year-over-year gains were seen in San Francisco (0.6%), Seattle (4.5%), Portland (5.4%), Minneapolis (5.9%) and Washington, DC (6%).