Source: Statista

The price of single-family homes in the U.S. reached a new high in March of 2023, a new release by the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows. The FHFA House Price Index climbed to 398.0 index points, up from a recalculated 395.5 points in February. A previous high of 395.1 had been reached in June of 2022. After a pandemic reshuffle of the housing market – which had many Americans looking to buy a house at the same time – prices picked up quickly in mid-2020 before cooling again after mid-2022 due to mortgage rates increasing majorly as part of the Fed’s measures to rein in the inflation caused by responses to the war in Ukraine.

The housing market’s usual patterns might have been somewhat disrupted by the pandemic and the changes in the mortgage market, but spring has remained the most popular time to buy a house as the beginning of a new year has been the most popular time to list one. But even after seasonal adjustment, March 2023 house prices were once more exceptionally high. The housing market returning to its strong growth is in part explained by mortgage rates that broke their continuous upward trajectory and inventories that remain tight, a consequence of long-term trends like the new-found tendency of older Americans to “age in place” rather than to downgrade, snowbird or move into retirement communities.