It wasn’t yet the season, but February’s home price environment seems to have gotten a jump on the vaunted spring housing market. Black Knight’s Mortgage Market reports that home prices rose 0.16 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis during the month, the first increase in seven months . This brought home prices within 2.6 percent of their June 2022 peak. On an annual basis, prices are up 1.94 percent compared to February 2022, the smallest annual growth rate since early 2012. Black Knight expects that growth rate to fall to zero by the April Monitor report, but also suggests it could be a temporary low if inventory remains depressed and interest rates ease. They caution that the first condition is likely, the second is not. The turnaround was broad-based. Thirty-nine of the 50 largest U.S. markets saw prices increase in February – in sharp contrast to just three months earlier when 48 of those 50 were experiencing price declines. Black Knight Vice President of Enterprise Research Andy Walden noted that purchases increased in early February when rates declined, and borrowers were quick to take advantage of limited inventory. Those inventory issues appear likely to continue. Wallace said, “The unfortunate reality is that the scarce supply of inventory that’s the source of so much market gridlock isn’t getting any better. In fact, seasonally adjusted inventory levels continued to deteriorate in February, marking not only the fifth straight month of such declines but also the largest inventory deficit we’ve seen since May of last year, with more than 90 percent of markets seeing such deficits grow in February.
