Much to the chagrin of would-be homebuyers, property prices just keep rising. It seems nothing — not even the highest mortgage rates in nearly 23 years — can stop the continued climb of home prices.
Prices increased once again in October, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index, with a 4.8 percent jump that represents the ninth month in a row of gains. In another reflection of ongoing increases, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that median home prices as of November were up 4 percent over last year — the fifth month in a row of year-over-year jumps.
So much for the idea that a “housing recession” would reverse some of the outsized price gains in homes. The U.S. housing market had finally started slowing in late 2022, and home prices seemed poised for a correction. But a strange thing happened on the way to the housing market crash: Home values started rising again.
The housing recession is essentially over.
— Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, National Association of Realtors
NAR data shows that median sale prices of existing homes are near record highs. November 2023’s median of $387,600 is off the all-time-high of $413,800, but not by much, especially for a typically quiet time of year. (Seasonal fluctuations in home prices make June the highest-priced month of most years — the all-time-high was reached in June 2022.) “The housing recession is essentially over,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief…
