U.S. Home Prices Fall for Seventh Consecutive Month in January

Rising mortgage rates are continuing to cool the hot housing market. Home prices fell 0.5% from December 2022 to January 2023, 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 seventh straight month-over-month decline. Furthermore, the annual rate of acceleration has slowed over the past nine months and is now at the lowest level since December 2019. Home prices were up 3.8% year-over-year in January 2023, down from the 5.6% annual jump in December 2022 and well below the all-time highs of 20.8% seen last March and April. This pattern of deceleration was apparent at a regional level. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index posted a 0.6% month-over-month decline, while the annual gain fell from 4.6% in December to 2.5% in January. In January, 19 of the 20 cities in the index reported month-over-month price declines, with only Miami reporting an increase, though mild at just 0.1%. Some of the deepest month-to-month declines occurred in the West region of the country, with the steepest declines in Las Vegas (-1.4%), Seattle (-1.4%), San Francisco (-1.3%) and Phoenix (-1.2%). On an annual basis, only a few areas recorded year-over-year price drops, including San Francisco (-7.6%), Seattle (-5.1%), San Diego (-1.4%) and Portland (-0.5%). The Southeast region, on the other hand, posted some of the nation’s biggest annual hikes, led by Miami (13.8%), Tampa (10.5%) and Atlanta (8.4%) and Charlotte (8.1%).