After seasonal adjustment, the national index posted a month-over-month increase of 0.2%. The national composite index now stands 4.9% below its June 2022 peak. Both the 10-City and 20-City composites posted month-over-month increases of 0.1%. Prices are still rising on a year-over-year basis, but the amount of that price growth has been getting smaller for the past several months. Year over year, the national index is only 2% above the February 2022 level, down from a 3.
“February home sales data suggest that a good number of buyers who had been sitting on the sidelines took advantage of this reprieve in mortgage rates,” Hale said. But prices were different in the West, where cities saw year-over-year declines in prices. “February’s results were most interesting because of their stark regional differences,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices.