House Prices Rise 4.3% over the Last Year; Up 0.5% from Fourth Quarter

U.S. house prices rose 4.3 percent between first-quarter 2022 and first-quarter 2023, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported Tuesday.

The FHFA House Price Index said house prices were up 0.5 percent compared to fourth-quarter 2022. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 0.6 percent from February.

“U.S. house prices generally increased modestly in the first quarter” said Anju Vajja, Principal Associate Director in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “However, year-over-year prices in many western states have started to decline for the first time in over ten years.”

In a separate report, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices for March showed a continuing recovery in housing prices. All 20 major metro markets the report tracks reported month-over-month price increases.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index reported a 0.7% annual gain in March, down from 2.1% in the previous month. Miami, Tampa and Charlotte reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities tracked in March.

“The modest increases in home prices we saw a month ago accelerated in March,” said Craig Lazzara, Managing Director of Index Investment Strategy at S&P DJI. “Two months of increasing prices do not a definitive recovery make, but March’s results suggest that the decline in home prices that began in June 2022 may have come to an end.” But Lazzara noted the challenges posed by current mortgage rates and the continuing possibility of economic weakness will likely remain a headwind for housing prices “for at least the next several months.”