Home prices

Pent-up demand and the rapid pace of home appreciation is fueling the ongoing rise in home prices, even as mortgage rates present obstacles for buyers.

Meanwhile, home prices are set to grow 3 to 4% in 2025, a Fitch report predicts.

The share of underwater mortgages also grew for the first time in almost two years during the third quarter, Corelogic found.

Despite the surge of inventory, the number of available homes is still below pre-pandemic levels, while price movements show wide regional variations, ICE Mortgage Technology said.

Compared to a year ago, investors bought a greater number of properties and made up a larger share of overall purchases, returning to the market faster than individual buyers, according to Redfin.

Price growth is decelerating but still driving historic home equity gains for owners and widening the gap between the haves and have-nots in housing, ICE finds.

The transactions grew between second and third quarter, with the new-home market seeing one of its largest surges in cash-buying in 13 years.

A shortage of listings has pushed up prices, boosting the total value of US homes to a record $47 trillion, Redfin reported. 

Ten Western states that benefited from a pandemic-driven boom reported value declines in May, CoreLogic said.

But there are regional variations in housing markets across the country, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

Home price overvaluations over 10% are easing in some markets, analysts say, but RMBS investors are still cautiously tightening liquidity amid uncertainty.

Housing costs increased at the slowest pace in over a decade nationwide, even while monthly growth now exceeds its pre-pandemic level.

Fannie Mae researchers found housing costs decelerating for the fourth straight quarter, but limited inventory may be driving hopeful buyers to look for opportunities in the new-construction market.

And in January, all-cash buyers reached their highest share in nine years, at 32.1%, Redfin said.

By the end of December, 63% of borrowers saw home values increase by 7.3%, for a collective gain of $1 trillion, CoreLogic's report found.

"This is Han Solo in carbonite: This is a market that could stay frozen for quite some time," said Benjamin Keys, a real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

The decline in loan activity and softening prices also helped drive down builder sentiment for the 11th month in a row.

Quarterly numbers also show the smallest gain in appreciation since 2011, with values decreasing on an unadjusted basis, according to Fannie Mae.

Housing's unusually high appreciation rates have now slowed for three months straight, and the number of metropolitan areas that are considered overvalued keeps growing, according to CoreLogic.

Prices are starting to fall in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. but they are still much higher than their pre-pandemic levels.