News

Read about the progress we’re making across the mortgage and real estate services industry.

arrow-left

06/17/2020

U.S. Home Price Gains Slow in May, Radian Home Price Index Reveals

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 17, 2020-- Home prices across the United States rose at an annualized rate of 4.5 percent in May 2020 from April 2020, according to Radian Home Price Index (HPI) data released today by Red Bell Real Estate, LLC, a Radian Group Inc. company (NYSE: RDN). The Radian HPI is the most comprehensive and timely measure of U.S. housing market prices and conditions.

The Radian HPI also rose 7.8 percent year-over-year (June 2019 to May 2020), which was slightly lower than the year-over-year increase of 7.9 percent recorded last month. Slowing home price growth is not unexpected given the dramatic COVID-19 impact on the ability to enter into and close many real estate transactions.

The Radian HPI is calculated based on the estimated values of more than 70 million unique U.S. addresses each month, covering all single-family property types and geographies.

“Home price gains across the U.S. slowed in May, a month typically known for accelerating activity, however the month also recorded additional reversals in some of the recent, negative real estate transactional data trends,” noted Steve Gaenzler, SVP of Data and Analytics. “Nationally, the weekly counts of properties going 'under contract,' a leading indicator to closings and sales, ended the month with higher levels than in the same period of 2019. In addition, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that applications for new mortgages were accelerating during the month and that the rate of new forbearance requests had begun to decline towards the end of the month.”

Gaenzler also added that “softer home price appreciation across the U.S. compared to the prior month suggests that the full impact of COVID nationally or locally on home prices may not yet be felt, but we are encouraged by some of our leading indicators.”

NATIONAL DATA AND TRENDS

  • Median home price in the U.S. rose to $254,826
  • Home prices rose an annualized 5.5 percent over the last three months

Nationally, the median estimated price for single-family and condominium homes rose to $254,826. Across the U.S., home prices nationally rose 5.5 percent over the last three months, slightly lower than the 5.6 percent reported for the three months from February through April. The impact of COVID-19 in May on national markets appears to have been to slow the rate of appreciation, as opposed to a decline in prices. Typically, home prices accelerate their growth momentum into the summer season. At 4.5 percent, the annualized rate reported in May was softer than recent years, but remained positive.

REGIONAL DATA AND TRENDS

  • Majority of regions softer from prior month
  • South and Northeast regions exhibit largest changes

In May, home price appreciation slowed from the prior month in all regions except the Mid-Atlantic, a region that has, so far, reported the most negative HPI impacts during COVID-19. The weakest regions this month were the South and Northeast, while the Midwest continued to be the best performing region. In a change from April’s report, all regions reported positive home price growth in May. Home buyer interest remained robust, while the future supply of new housing (New Private Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits as reported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) recorded levels 50 percent lower than January 2020—both providing support for home prices in May.

The Western region recorded an actual 12-month price appreciation rate (+6.1 percent), a rate higher than its annualized change from April to May (+5.5 percent), but lower than the 3-month rate of 6.9 percent. Conversely, the South which recorded a 12-month appreciation rate of 6.8 percent was only able to generate a 2.5 percent annualized growth rate last month.

METROPOLITAN AREA DATA AND TRENDS

  • New York metro area prices rebound in May
  • Slower, but positive, appreciation the norm in most metros

Across the 20-largest metro areas of the U.S, all of them recorded positive price appreciation in May, but all were at slower rates than reported in April. Two metros in particular, Baltimore and New York recorded higher rates of price growth last month after a series of months with rates well below longer term growth. And while rates were softer this month, we note that in 14 of the top 20 largest CBSAs, short term growth rates (3-months) remain higher than longer term rates (12-months).

The weakest metros in May based on their annualized growth included Washington, D.C. (+0.0 percent), Los Angeles (+1.9 percent), Baltimore (+2.1 percent) and Miami (+2.1 percent). The strongest included Minneapolis, Seattle, New York and St. Louis, all with greater than 6.4 percent growth in May.

ABOUT THE RADIAN HPI

Red Bell, a subsidiary of Radian Group Inc., provides national and regional indices for download at info.radian.biz/hpi, along with information on how to access the full library of indices.

Additional content on the housing market can also be found on the Radian Insights page located at https://radian.com/news-and-knowledge/insights.

The company offers the Radian HPI data set along with a client access portal for content visualization and data extraction. The engine behind the Radian HPI has created more than 100,000 unique data series, which are updated on a monthly basis.

The Radian HPI Portal is a self-service data and visualization platform that contains a library of thousands of high-value indices based on both geographic dimensions as well as by market, or property attributes. The platform provides monthly updated access to nine different geographic dimensions, from the national level down to zip codes. In addition, the Radian HPI provides unique insights into market changes, conditions and strength across multiple property attributes, including bedroom count and livable square footage. To help enhance its customers’ understanding of granular real estate markets, the library is expanded regularly to include more insightful indices.

In addition to the services offered by its Red Bell subsidiary, Radian is ensuring the American dream of homeownership responsibly and sustainably through products and services that include industry-leading mortgage insurance and a comprehensive suite of mortgage, risk, title, valuation, asset management and other real estate services. The company is powered by technology, informed by data and driven to deliver new and better ways to transact and manage risk. Visit www.radian.com to see how Radian is shaping the future of mortgage and real estate services.

For Investors
John Damian – Phone: 215.231.1383
Email: john.damian@radian.com

For the Media
Rashi Iyer – Phone: 215.231.1167
Email: rashi.iyer@radian.com

Source: Radian Group Inc.