Housing Market Reignites as Home Prices Hit New Record High
The Mortgage Monitor Report is based on the industry-leading mortgage, real estate and public records data sets and its latest release by Black Knight, Inc shows three distinct signs of a reheating market as we approach the traditional end of the spring homebuying season. This can be almost universally seen across all United States markets. Five consecutive months of gains have completely reversed the pullback in home prices that began in July 2022, as Black Knight Vice President of Enterprise Research Andy Walden explains further.
According to The Mecklenburg Times, “there is no doubt that the housing market has reignited from a home price perspective,” said Walden. “Firming prices have now fully erased the pullback we tracked through the last half of 2022 and lifted the seasonally adjusted Black Knight HPI to a new record high in May. Though the backward-looking annual growth rate dipped to 0.1%, May’s exceptionally strong +0.7% month-over-month gain would equate to an annualized growth rate of 8.9%, suggesting the annual home price growth rate would remain at or near 0% for only a short time before inflecting and trending sharply higher in coming months. The reheating is widespread, with more than half of the 50 largest U.S. markets seeing prices at or above 2022 peaks. While prices are still well below peak levels across the West and in many pandemic boom towns, price firming in recent months has begun to close those gaps. Austin, Texas, remains the notable exception; inventory there continues to run above pre-pandemic levels, putting downward pressure on prices, which have fallen to -13.8% below peak, the largest gap of any market. Just eight of the top 50 markets are currently more than 5% below their 2022 peaks.
