U.S. home prices fell 0.5% in January from December, their seventh straight monthly decline, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. Nation🐻al Home Price𝄹 NSA Index, as higher mortgage rates discouraged homebuyers.

Home prices are still higher than꧃ a year earlier, with the Case-Shiller national index up 3.8% in January from the same month last year, though the difference narrowed from 5.6% in December.

The national market is sharply divided, with the biggest slowdowns coming in West🍨ern states with strong technology job markets and in places that drew the most pandemic migration, while strong growth continues in the Sunbelt, partiౠcularly Florida and the Southeast.

Florida’s 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:real estate market is still hot. As it has been for six straight months, Miami was the top-performing city in the Case-Shiller, with home price꧒s up 13.5% over last year, fꦚollowed by Tampa’s 10.5%. Sunbelt neighbors Atlanta (8.4%) and Charlotte (8.1%) followed, part of the Southeast region that led the nation with 10.2% housing price growth.

Higher mortgage rates fueled by the Federal Reserve's year-long program of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:interest rate hikes are the primary cause 🥂of the housing market slowdown, according to data from before t𝄹he March banking crisis.

Tech Hubs Lead Cool Off

Among the weakest markets in the country is Austin, Texas, according to a Redfin report covering February data. The report looks at year-over-year changes in home prices, price drops, supply,♔ pending sales, sale-to-list price ratio, and the share of homes that sell within two w🎐eeks.

The♕ tech centers of Seattle, San Jose, and Oakland saw the biggest dropoffs in homebuying demand and competition, ac🥂cording to Redfin. Homes in San Jose sold for just 0.6% above asking price this February, down from the 12% above asking price sellers were getting last year. 

Redfin’s list of the 10 cities with the slowest housing price growth is composed entirely of cities in the West: Phoenix; Tacoma, Washington; D🐭enver; Las Vegas; Stockton, California; and Sacramento, California. Case-Shiller also had a negative outlook for the West Coast, with San Diego and Portland joining San Francisco and Seattle with declining housing prices. 

“Some reported that layoffs and precarious tech stocks a🍸re deterring buyers. Others attribute the slowdown mainly to other factors, including su✨per-low inventory,” according to Redfin agent reports from these markets. 

High mortgage rates are the primary🔯 drag on the housing market, according to Case-Shiller.

“The Federal Reserve remains focused on its inflation-reduction targets, which suggest that rates may remain elevated in the near-term. Mortgage financing and the prospect of economic weakness are therefore likely to remain a headwind for housing prices for at least the next several months,” Craig J. Lazzara, managing dir🅘ector at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a release.