US home prices recover further as buyers battle for tight supply of listings
HOME prices in the US rose for a third straight month, pushed up by growing buyer demand for a tight supply of listings.
A national gauge of prices increased 0.5 per cent in April from March, according to seasonally adjusted data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller.
The US is in what’s traditionally its busiest home buying season, with only about half the properties that were listed for sale in spring 2019. The inventory shortage is keeping a lid on transactions, but shoppers determined to seal a deal are often forced to pay more than the asking price in many areas of the country.
“The ongoing recovery in home prices is broadly based,” Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement on Tuesday (Jun 27).
On a year-over-year basis, prices slipped 0.2 per cent , compared with a 0.7 per cent increase in March. Miami, Chicago and Atlanta reported the highest annual gains among the 20 largest cities.
The housing market is still adjusting to mortgage rates that have about doubled from early 2022, cutting into affordability for would-be buyers and discouraging current homeowners from moving.
Continued improvement “will depend on how well the market navigates the challenges posed by current mortgage rates and the continuing possibility of economic weakness,” Lazzara said. BLOOMBERG
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