Source: Barron’s —
After months of thinning gains, home prices have finally fallen from year-ago levels, according to one frequent gauge of data. It could be a sign of what’s to come as full-month indicators—which show price growth from the year prior—catch up.
Investors last month received a slate of December and January home price data to digest. The figures, from the National Association of Realtors and S&P Dow Jones Indices, show that prices continued to slip month-over-month, but remained positive from year-ago levels.
Economists typically measure prices from year-ago levels to contend with housing market seasonality—and this new batch of data reflected a continued slowdown in gains as rising mortgage rates dampened the pandemic’s previous housing boom.
The Realtors association said the median single-family home sold for $363,100 in January, an increase of 0.7% from the year prior, while S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices’ December data, which tracks changes to single-family home prices as an index number, reflected a national price gain of 5.8% year-over-year.
