Home Price Growth Falls To 5.5% To Start 2023

Home price growth continued to slow as we started 2023, according to the latest CoreLogic Home Price index.

• Y-O-Y: Home prices nationwide increased year-over-year by 5.5% in January, down from 6.9% in December and the lowest level since early summer 2020.

• M-O-M: Home prices continued to decline month-over-month with a 0.2% dip in January, up from December’s 0.4% and the seventh straight month of declines.

Miami Stands Alone. Miami is by and far the top metro area with 17.3% annual growth in January, down from 19.5% in December. The next closest metro area is Houston with 6.9% growth followed by Chicago (+4.5%), Boston (+3.4%), and San Diego & Phoenix both at 2.6%.

• Not surprisingly, Florida was the hottest state in January with 13.4% growth followed by Maine (+11.5%) and South Carolina (+10.7%).
• Idaho, Montana, Washington and Washington, D.C. have already home prices falling year-over-year.

Analysis. Selma Hepp, Chief Economist for CoreLogic, noted that home prices falling along with wage gains will be good for home affordability. “Home price depreciation and strong income growth are expected to boost affordability, which is particularly important for first-time buyers. This group has accounted for a higher share of mortgage applications since last summer, as first-time buyers don’t need to surrender an extremely low mortgage rate like current homeowners.”