Home prices

First American’s Real House Price Index showed a record increase, reflecting both elevated home prices and fast-rising interest rates.

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell in March to the lowest since June 2020 as historically low inventory paired with rising mortgage rates curbed purchases.

Researchers at the government-sponsored enterprise noted the role rising rates are playing in increasing housing costs in its report, now offered publicly for the first time.

Nationally, prices jumped 19.2%, the fourth-biggest jump in data going back 35 years.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said longer-run structural issues will continue to put upward pressure on home prices and rents even as the central bank begins a campaign to raise borrowing costs.

Sales of new U.S. homes fell in February for a second month, suggesting high prices and rising mortgage rates may be keeping prospective buyers on the sidelines.

Contract closings decreased 7.2% in February from the prior month to an annualized 6.02 million, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Friday.

All indicators show that the renting market is heating up, as would-be buyers of houses increasingly turn to rentals because they can’t find — and can’t afford — their dream houses.

Before the pandemic, the sprawling architecture and physical distance from neighbors, bars and restaurants seemed out of step with city-obsessed millennials. That’s changed.

Rising interest rates are likely to further slow the rate of appreciation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in its quarterly Home Price Index report.