Intercontinental Exchange: House Prices growth slows to 1.4% YoY in May
The ICE Home Price Index (HPI) is a repeat sales index. ICE reports the median price change of the repeat sales.
From ICE (Intercontinental Exchange):
From ICE (Intercontinental Exchange):
• Recent data shows home price growth continued to cool, dropping to an annual growth rate of +1.4%, down from an already low +1.6% mid-month.Almost a third (30%) of all major home sales markets have seen prices fall by at least a full percentage point, with 20% falling by 2% and seven markets (Austin, Cape Coral, North Port, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Boise City) falling by more than 5%.
• On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices fell by -0.01% in the month – the first decline in this metric since 2022.
• In fact, if you back out outliers, such as the Fed rate hikes in 2022 and the COVID shutdown in 2020, this is the first time we’ve seen home prices decline, on an adjusted basis, in any month since 2012.
• Condos were the first to turn, with condo prices now down nearly a full percentage point from the same time last year. Single family residences, on the other hand, are still up a modest +1.7%.
The largest drops from the peak in 2022 have been in Austin (-19.2%), Cape Coral (-12.1%), North Port, Fla. (-10.2%) and San Francisco (-8.3%)
Why is this happening?
Mortgage rates have ticked higher in the wake of recent tariff and government spending announcements, which increased inflationary concerns and decreased the number of Fed rate cuts expected by the market in 2025. Higher rates and moderated demand are allowing inventory levels to build, especially in the western U.S. with 40% of markets now seeing more homes for sale than they averaged from 2017-2019 and another 10% on pace for inventory to ‘normalize’ by the end of the year. Denver now has twice as many homes for sale as it did in the years leading up to the pandemic, with California’s 10 largest markets seeing 40-75% more homes available for sale than at the same time last year.
Andy Walden, head of mortgage and housing market research for ICE, says:“We continue to see an inflection in the housing market as home-price softening expands beyond the Sunbelt into the West. With inventory levels beginning to normalize across much of the country, prospective homebuyers are finally beginning to see some long-anticipated price relief.”As ICE mentioned, cities in the South have been leading the way in inventory increases and price declines (especially Florida and Texas). Now the West Coast markets are following.
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