Eye On Housing
Home price appreciation continued in April despite the economic slowdown and the recent declines in existing home sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, reported by S&P Dow Jones Indices, rose at a seasonally adjusted annual growth rate of 5.8% in April, after a revised 6.9% increase in March. On a year-over-year basis, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index posted a 4.7% annual gain in April, up from 4.6% in March. It marked the highest annual growth rate since November 2018. Although the economy experienced a slowdown and existing home sales dropped to the slowest pace in a decade in April, home prices remained stable at national level amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Home Price Index, released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.1% in April, following a 1.8% increase in March. On a year-over-year basis, the FHFA Home Price NSA Index rose by 5.5% in April, after an increase of 5.9% in March.
In addition to tracking home price changes nationwide, S&P reported home price indexes across 19 metro areas in April (Detroit metro area data was missing in March and April because transactions records for Wayne county, Michigan were unavailable).
In April, local home prices varied and their annual growth rates ranged from -2.5% to 16.5%. Among all the 19 metro areas, 16 metro areas reported positive annual growth rates and 3 had negative annual growth rates. Cleveland, Phoenix and Minneapolis had the highest home price appreciation. Cleveland led the way with a 16.5% increase, followed by Phoenix with a 13.5% increase and Minneapolis with a 12.4% increase. Home prices declined in Portland (-2.5%), Seattle (-0.6%) and San Francisco (-0.3%).
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