U.S. house prices accelerated to their highest year-over-year gain in over 35 years, as the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA index logged an annual increase of 20.6% in March, up from the previous month's 20.0% year-over-year growth. The index was up 2.1% from the previous month after seasonal adjustment.
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"Those of us who have been anticipating a deceleration in the growth rate of U.S. home prices will have to wait at least a month longer," according to S&P Dow Jones Indices Managing Director Craig Lazzara.
Lazzara noted that the "extraordinary home price growth" will not hold for much longer, given the rising interest rates and costly mortgages. "Although one can safely predict that price gains will begin to decelerate, the timing of the deceleration is a more difficult call," Lazzara added.
Tampa, Fla., got highest gains
The 20-City Composite index posted yet another record year-over-year gain of 21.2% in March, up from the previous month's 20.3%. The 10-City Composite index also saw a 19.5% increase year over year, up from 18.7% in February.
Tampa, Fla., overtook the lead from Phoenix in terms of house price growth, posting a 34.8% year-over-year gain in March. Phoenix came in second with an annual price gain of 32.4%, followed by Miami at 32.0%.
Taylor Morrison tops homebuilder stocks; United Wholesale Mortgage leads mortgage lenders
As of May 27, overall U.S. homebuilder stocks tanked, posting a median total return of negative 22.9% over the course of one year.
Taylor Morrison Home Corp. performed better than the rest of the pack, with a negative one-year total return of 2.3%. In the 12 months to March 31, the company sold 13,646 homes, an 8.4% increase from the previous year.
United Wholesale Mortgage still leads the year's list of residential mortgage lenders, originating $17.20 billion in residential mortgages through February. This was down 34.2% from the previous year.
New home sales saw double-digit MOM drop in April
New single-family home sales in the U.S. plunged 16.6% on a monthly basis in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000 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 26.9%.
During the same period, existing-home sales fell at a slower pace, declining 2.4% from the previous month and by 5.9% year over year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Likewise, privately owned, single-unit housing starts slipped 7.3% month over month in April but increased 3.7% on a yearly basis.
National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted that the recent decline in homebuyer activity was attributed to higher house prices and sharp hikes in mortgage rates. "It looks like more declines are imminent in the upcoming months, and we'll likely return to the pre-pandemic home sales activity after the remarkable surge over the past two years," Yun said in a May 19 press release.
S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Market Intelligence are owned by S&P Global Inc.