Home prices continue to climb. In the country’s 20 largest metropolitan markets, houses cost 0.4% more in February compared with January and 7.3% more compared with a year earlier, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices report released Tuesday.
San Diego saw the largest year-over-year gain of 11.4%, followed by Chicago and Detroit, both of which increased 8.9%. While home prices in Los Angeles, New York, San Diego and Washington, D.C., are at an all-time high, prices in all 20 of the nation’s major metropolitan areas increased for the third month in a row.
“U.S. home prices are at or near all-time highs,” S&P Dow Jones Indices Head of Commodities Brian D. Luke said in a statement.
Nationally, prices rose at the fastest annual rate in February since November 2022, he said.
“Since the previous peak in prices in 2022, this marks the second time home prices have pushed higher in the face of economic uncertainty,” Luke said.
He noted the first housing price decline came after the Federal Reserve began increasing interest rates in March 2022. The second decline came last October, when the average 30-year mortgage rate climbed close to 8%.
“Enthusiasm for potential Fed cuts and lower mortgage rates appears to have supported buyer behavior” in February, Luke said.
