Cooling Buyer Demand Pushes September Home Prices Down
CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., said September home prices fell by 0.5 percent from August, while annual growth slowed for the fifth consecutive month.
The company’s monthly Home Price Index and Forecast reported U.S. home price growth continued to relax on a year-over-year basis in September, posting an 11.4% increase.
As in previous months, Southeastern states saw significantly higher price gains than the national growth rate, with Florida again leading the country for the eighth consecutive month. Although rising mortgage rates continue to dampen housing demand nationwide, out-migration from more expensive states on the West Coast and in the Northeast is likely fueling homebuyer enthusiasm for properties in relatively more affordable Southeastern states.
CoreLogic expects annual U.S. home price growth to continue to slow over the next 12 months to 3.9% by September 2023.
“The rapid increase in prices during the COVID-19 pandemic caused many U.S. housing markets to reach completely unaffordable levels for potential local homebuyers,” said Selma Hepp, interim lead of the Office of the Chief Economist at CoreLogic. “On the West Coast and in Mountain-West states, home prices are slowing from this spring’s high but remain elevated from a year ago. By contrast, markets that continue to see an in-migration of higher-income households are still experiencing home price gains that are notably higher than the national rate of appreciation.”
Other report findings:
–Annual appreciation of detached properties (11.5%) was 0.4 percentage points higher than that of attached properties (11.1%).
–Miami posted the highest year-over-year home price increase of the country’s 20 largest metro areas in September, at 25.6%, while Tampa, Fla., remained in the No. 2 slot at 23.2%.
–Florida and South Carolina posted the highest home price gains, 23% and 17.6%, respectively. Tennessee ranked third with a 17.4% year-over-year increase. Washington, D.C. ranked last for appreciation at 1.8%.
