House prices in the U.S. continued to grow in April, rising 20.4% year over year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index. The index was up 1.5% from the previous month after seasonal adjustment.

However, the April increase was a slight deceleration from the 20.6% annual price increase in March. "April 2022 showed initial (although inconsistent) signs of a deceleration in the growth rate of U.S. home prices," according to S&P Dow Jones Indices Managing Director Craig Lazzara.

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Lazzara mentioned that the Fed's recent decision to raise interest rates has made mortgage financing more expensive and that a "more challenging macroeconomic environment" might not be able to support "extraordinary home price growth" for long.

Tampa, Fla., scores highest home price gain

The 20-City Composite Index saw a year-over-year gain of 21.2% in April, up from the previous month's 21.1%, while the 10-City Composite Index saw a 19.7% increase year over year, up from 19.5% in February.

Tampa, Fla., still had the highest annual house price gain for the second consecutive month, at 35.8%. Miami came in second with an annual price gain of 33.3%, followed by Phoenix at 31.3%.

Taylor Morrison leads homebuilder stocks; Rocket Mortgage tops mortgage lenders

U.S. homebuilder stocks are still performing poorly, closing June 27 with a median total return of negative 25.3% over the course of one year.

Taylor Morrison Home Corp. had a better performing stock compared to the other U.S. homebuilders, posting a negative one-year total return of 8.9%. In the 12 months to March 31, the company sold 13,646 homes, an 8.4% increase from the previous year.

Rocket Mortgage LLC topped the list of U.S. residential mortgage lenders year-to-date, originating $48.17 billion in residential mortgages through March. This was down 50.2% from the same period in the previous year.

New home sales up, existing home sales drop MOM in May

New single-family home sales in the U.S. increased 10.7% on a monthly basis in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 696,000 units, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. On an annual basis, new home sales declined 5.9%.

Conversely, existing-home sales saw a 3.4% decline from the previous month and an 8.6% drop year over year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Similarly, privately owned, single-unit housing starts fell by 9.2% month over month in May and by 5.3% on a yearly basis.

After two years of "gangbuster performance," home sales have returned to pre-pandemic levels, said National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, in a June 21 press release. "Also, the market movements of single-family and condominium sales are nearly equal, possibly implying that the preference towards suburban living over city life that had been present over the past two years is fading with a return to pre-pandemic conditions," Yun added.

Yun also noted that sales are predicted to drop further in the coming months, given the challenges in housing affordability caused by sharp increases in mortgage rates.

S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.