U.S. house prices continue their upswing, with the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA index rising 19.8% year on year in February, up from a 19.1% increase in January.
It was "the third-highest reading in 35 years of history," indicating "broad strength" in the market, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices Managing Director Craig Lazzara. The index was up 1.9% from the previous month after seasonal adjustment.
Faster price hikes than in January
The 20-City Composite index just surpassed the 20% growth mark, rising 20.2% year over year in February, up from 18.9% the prior month. The 10-City Composite index was also up by 18.6% year over year, compared to 17.3% in January.
In February, all cities covered by the 20-City Composite index saw double-digit annual price growth, with all price hikes relatively higher than their respective gains in January.
Phoenix still has the highest house price growth, with a 32.9% year-over-year increase in February. Tampa, Fla., and Miami followed, with annual price hikes of 32.6% and 29.7%, respectively.
Legacy Housing tops homebuilder stocks; United Wholesale Mortgage leads mortgage lenders
Legacy Housing Corp. led the homebuilder stocks as of April 25 with a 4.6% one-year total return, way above the negative 21.2% median return across all U.S. homebuilders. In the 12 months to Sept. 30, 2021, the company sold 3,066 homes, a 10.2% decline from the previous year.
United Wholesale Mortgage topped the list of residential mortgage lenders, originating $9.04 billion in residential mortgages in January. This was down 28.5% from the previous year.
Sales and starts drop
New single-family home sales in the U.S. fell 8.6% on a monthly basis in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 763,000 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 dropped 12.6%.
Existing-home sales dropped by 2.7% from the previous month in March and by 4.5% year over year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Privately owned, single-unit housing starts slightly fell by 1.7% month over month in March and by 4.4% on a yearly basis.
While house price gains remain in the double digits, the housing market is also beginning to feel the effects of rapidly increasing mortgage rates and higher inflation on purchasing power, National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in an April 20 press release.
"With rising mortgage rates, cash sales made up a larger fraction of transactions, climbing to the highest share since 2014," Yun added. All-cash sales were up in March 2022, accounting for 28% of the month's transactions, compared to 25% in February and 23% in March 2021, according to the National Association of Realtors.
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