Market Favoring Buyers Ahead of Spring Season

This year's spring buying season is met with cooling home prices. The latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index data show a three percent annual gain in February, down five basis points from January's year-over-year growth.

Along with slowing home price appreciation, inventory grew, helping shift market conditions into buyer's favor ahead of the peak buying season for 2019. According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales grew 3.8 percent from February to March, up 9 percent in the West and growing more than four percent in the South, CBS News reports.

After cratering in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, home values started to climb in 2012 and since then have been consistently outstripping wage growth, spurring affordability challenges in many cities. Successive home price increases made it difficult for prospective buyers to save for a down payment and for homeowners to upgrade to a more expensive property.

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