During the housing bubble, home prices peaked in July 2006 before plunging to new lows in a crash that endured until 2012. Now, they’re once again reaching new highs.
Home prices soared to a 13.2 percent year-over-year gain in March, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index. That’s up from the 12 percent annual gain in February, and marks the 10th consecutive month of accelerating home prices.
March’s numbers represent the highest year-over-year gain in a single month since December 2005, leaving the national index up 32 percent from its July 2006 peak.
The 13.2 percent jump “lies very comfortably in the top decile of historical performance,” Craig J. Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.
The record-setting high is a long-time coming. In December, the indices found that home prices had reached their fastest level of growth in six years. Since then, prices have only increased further.
Though all 20 cities tracked reported price increases, Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle saw the highest year-over-year gains. Phoenix led the way with a 20 percent price jump, followed by San Diego at 19.1 percent increase and Seattle at 18.3 percent.
As the pandemic has pushed more buyers into the market in the search for greater space, inventory has been depleted. That’s resulted in increased prices for homes that are available.
Across the country, the median existing home sale price rose by 16.2 percent annually to $319,200 in the first quarter of 2021, its highest level since 1989, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
The trend continued in April, when the median existing home price jumped 19 percent year-over-year to $341,000 as sales volume slowed for the third consecutive month.
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