After months of major price corrections in a cooling housing market, home prices continued to trend downward in December 2022, but some metros saw more significant declines than others, Forbes reports. Home prices are down 0.8% on a monthly basis, but cities such as Phoenix, Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas are seeing even larger decreases of -1.9%, -1.9%, and -1.8%, respectively.
Higher mortgage rates are forcing sellers to lower their asking prices in order to attract priced-out buyers, and as 30-year rates continue to rise, home prices could continue to fall at a faster pace over the next several months.
In February, the median U.S. home-sale price fell 0.6% year over year, according to a report from real estate brokerage Redfin, marking the first annual drop since 2012 at a time when daily average mortgage rates hit 7.1%, pricing out buyers and forcing sellers to lower their asking prices to adjust to high mortgage rates. Home prices were likely to come down since mortgage rates rose, pushing borrowing costs to 16-year highs and crushing home-buyer demand, according to Redfin.
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