March home price gains rose slightly even as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread across the United States, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, released Tuesday.
Prices rose 4.4 percent in March, up from 4.2 percent gains during the previous month. A 10-city composite of the country’s largest cities saw 3.4 percent annual gains while the 20-city composite experienced 3.9 percent gains year-over-year.
“In all three cases, March’s year-over-year gains were ahead of February’s, continuing a trend of gently accelerating home prices that began last autumn,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index Investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a prepared statement.
Case-Shiller
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index is a monthly composite of single-family home price indices across nine U.S. Census divisions. They are calculated using estimates of the aggregate value of single-family housing stock for the time period in question.
“March results were broad-based. Prices rose in each of the 19 cities for which we have reported data, and price increases accelerated in 17 cities,” Lazzara said.
Regionally, Phoenix once again kept the spot as the city with the biggest gains for the tenth month in a row at 8.2 percent. Seattle and Charlotte followed at 6.9 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.
“Importantly, today’s report covers real estate transactions closed during the month of March,” said Lazzara. “Housing prices have not yet registered any adverse effects from the governmental suppression of economic activity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As much of the U.S. economy remained shuttered in April, next month’s data may show a more noticeable impact.”