Realty check
With mortgage rates and house prices both somewhat inexplicably rising in recent years, the US housing market has been frozen. Owners haven’t been looking to remortgage at higher rates, and would-be buyers have struggled to make offers in one of the most unaffordable markets on record, sending home sales to their lowest levels in 28 years.
But, national price statistics tell only one part of the story, as the US isn’t just one market: it’s thousands.
The Home Value Index, released by internet portal Zillow, reports data on the value of a typical home across more than 3,000 US counties. Zillow’s index found that home prices rose 3.2% between Dec ‘22 and Dec ‘23, as the post-Covid housing bubble in Texas and other Southern states burst and competitive areas in the Northeast and Florida heated up. Indeed, if you’ve ever wanted to move to Austin, now might be the time, with prices reportedly down ~20% from their 2022 peak. Looking ahead, Zillow expects a similar hike in house prices this year, forecasting a 3.5% rise.
Thawing out
Despite rising house prices, however, there are some more signs of movement in the market. Redfin data showed that mortgage-purchase applications were up 8% this January from the end of last year, and the National Association of Realtors also reported that pending home sales climbed 8.3% month-over-month in December — the biggest increase since June 2020 — as higher consumer confidence and slightly lower mortgage rates begin to ripple through the housing market.
