Home prices continued to trend upwards in January as the benchmark 20-city index rose for an eleventh consecutive month. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index revealed seasonally adjusted home prices for the 20-city index saw a 0.1% increase month-over-month (MoM) and a 6.6% increase year-over-year (YoY). After adjusting for inflation, the MoM was reduced to -0.4% and the YoY was reduced to 0.4%.
The seasonally adjusted home prices for the 10-city index saw a 0.2% MoM, and a 7.4% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM dropped to -0.3% and YoY dropped to 1.1%.
The seasonally adjusted home prices for the national index saw a 0.4% increase MoM, and a 6.1% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM fell to -0.2% and YoY fell to -0.2%.
Here is the analysis from today's Standard & Poor's press release:
ANALYSIS
“U.S. home prices continued their drive higher,” says Brian D. Luke, Head of Commodities, Real & Digital Assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Our National Composite rose by 6% in January, the fastest annual rate since 2022. Stronger gains came from our 10- and 20-City Composite indices, rising 7.4% and 6.6%, respectively. For the second consecutive month, all cities reported increases in annual prices, with San Diego surging 11.2%. On a seasonal adjusted basis, home prices have continued to break through previous all-time highs set last year.”
“We've commented on how consistent each market performed during 2023 and that continues to be the case. While there is a large disparity between leaders such as San Diego versus laggards such as with Portland, the broad market performance is tightly bunched up. This is also true of high and low tiers. The average annual gains between high and low tiers across cities tracked by the indices is just 1.1%. Low price tiered indices have outperformed high priced indices for 17 months. Homeowners most likely saw healthy gains in the last year, no matter what city you were in, or if it was in an expensive or inexpensive neighborhood. No matter which way you slice it, the index performance closely resembled the broad market.”
“On a monthly basis, home prices continue to struggle in the face of elevated borrowing costs. Seventeen markets dropped over the last month, while Minneapolis has posted a 2.4% decline over the prior three months. Only Southern California and Washington D.C. have stood up the rising wave of interest rates and deliver positive returns to start the year. San Diego rose 1.8% in January, followed by DC with 0.5% and Los Angeles at 0.1%.”
