Home Prices Gain
The S&P Case-Shiller index for March was just released today.On a national basis, this index showed a 5.2% gain from home prices in March 2016. This again was actually down slightly from 5.3% in February.
The highest year-over-year home price gains were shown by Portland, Seattle, and Denver. Portland led the way with a 10.3% year-over-year home price gain. This was followed by Seattle which had a 10.8% gain, and third-place was Denver with a 10% gain.
Here in San Diego California the S&P Case-Shiller index showed that for March our home prices increase by 1% from February 2016. On a year-over-year basis, San Diego’s home prices gained 6.2%.
As a comparison, the one-year home price gain for Los Angeles was 6.5%, it was 8.5% for San Francisco and Phoenix Arizona came in at a 5.6% home price increase. On a national average, the one year home price increase was 5.2%
In a statement from the chairman of the S&P Dow Jones index, it was stated “The economy is supporting the price increases with improving labor markets, falling unemployment rates and extremely low mortgage rates. Yet, home prices continue to rise faster than inflation. A tight housing inventory has also made it more difficult for would-be homeowners, especially those who are looking to purchase a home at the lower end of the cost spectrum. There haven’t been this few homes on the market since the mid-1980s. Out of all the houses in the country, just 2% of them are up for sale”.
Although there are many that are predicting that home prices are about to level off and/or slightly decline, it seems that are tight inventory of both resale and new homes are keeping the market strong.
Naturally, for first-time buyers this is one of the most frustrating markets seen in many years. Many other lower-priced first-time buyer properties are still generating multiple offers and here in California, a good number are selling for over the original listed price.
So as we are in the middle of the strongest seasonal home buying period, I personally see the market remaining strong at least until October or November.
To view the full S&P case Shiller home price index report, please click here.
