U.S. home prices increased last month, with Phoenix the nation's hottest market with a 33.1 percent increase from last September, the Associated Press reported.
Phoenix was followed by Tampa, which had a 27.7 percent increase, and Miami at 25.3 percent. The smallest increases were in Chicago with an 11.8 percent increase and Minneapolis with 12.8 percent.
The housing market has continued to be strong this year from a limited supply of homes on the market, low mortgage rates and rising demand from consumers who had been shut in their homes during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Housing prices continued to show remarkable strength in September, though the pace of price increases declined slightly," said Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "We have previously suggested that the strength in the U.S. housing market is being driven by households' reaction to the COVID pandemic, as potential buyers move from urban apartments to suburban homes."
The demand for new homes is also helping the market, and causing homes to be on the market for only a short amount of time. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 82 percent of homes sold in October were on the market for less than a month. Some homes sell within just days of being listed, typically remaining on the market for 18 days before getting bought.
According to the NAR, the national median home price jumped last month to $353,900, a 13.1 percent increase from the previous October.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price climbed 19.1 percent in September from a year earlier. The strong price gains marked a deceleration from August's 19.6 percent year-over-year increase. Still, September prices in all 20 cities set records.
Last week, the NAR reported that sales of previously occupied homes rose 0.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.3 million, the strongest annual pace since January. The Commerce Department reported last week that new-home prices edged up a disappointing 0.4 percent last month as median prices rose nearly 18 percent from a year earlier to a record $407,700.
"Most indicators suggest prices have continued to edge higher, albeit at a slightly slower pace, amid tight supply conditions and the structural shift in demand towards single-family, suburban homes induced by the pandemic,'' Contingent Macro Advisors said in a research report.
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