The Case Shiller Home Price Index was released last week showing that home prices across the nation increased by 2.1% in the month of April. Year over year it showed that home prices increased by 20.4% which was slightly lower than the previous report, but still a very hot number. This report is known as one of the most accurate reads on home appreciation, but it is a lagging report as it measures data from over 60 days ago.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency or FHFA, also released its appreciation index last week and it showed that home prices increased by 1.6% in the month of April. According to this report, the annual rise in appreciation was 18.8% which was a slight drop from their prior reporting of 19.1% but was still a very hot number like the Case Shiller. This index has a slightly different measuring standard, as it only measures single-family homes purchased with conforming loan amounts.
“House price appreciation continues to remain elevated in April,” said Will Doerner, Ph.D., Supervisory Economist in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “The inventory of homes on the market remains low, which has continued to keep upward pressure on sale prices. Increasing mortgage rates have yet to offset demand enough to deter the strong price gains happening across the country.”
Even though both of these reports are from April’s data, they both point to how resilient the housing market is even in the face of rising interest rates which were prevalent in April. It is evident that demand is still outweighing the supply of homes which is supportive of home price appreciation.
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By: Jon Iacono