Nicole Freidman of The Wall Street Journal tells her readers that home prices hit a new record in September due to a shortage of homes for sale, even as high interest rates made home purchases less affordable. She writes:
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures home prices across the nation, rose 3.9% from a year earlier in September, compared with a 2.5% annual increase the prior month. The September level was the highest since the index began in 1987.
On a month-over-month basis, the index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in September.
Home sales have slumped from a year ago because higher mortgage rates have pushed buyers out of the market. But the decline in demand isn’t causing prices to fall, because the inventory of homes on the market is unusually low. Higher rates have prompted potential home sellers to stay put because they don’t want to give up the low rates that they have on their existing mortgages.
The median existing-home sale price rose 3.4% in October from a year earlier to $391,800, according to the National Association of Realtors.[…]
Detroit had the fastest annual home-price growth in the country, at 6.7%, followed by San Diego, at 6.5%. The weakest market was Las Vegas, where prices fell 1.9% on an annual basis.
A separate measure of home-price growth by the Federal Housing Finance Agency also released Tuesday found a 6.1% increase in home prices in September from a year earlier. The FHFA index rose 0.6% in September from the prior month on a seasonally adjusted basis.
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