Housing Prices Show Significant Year over Year Growth
The Federal Housing Finance Agency published the 2022 Q4 Housing Price Index report and national data shows home prices rose 8.4% from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2022.
The report noted that the U.S. housing market has experienced positive annual appreciation each quarter since the start of 2012.
The Five-year home appreciation in our region was between 30.21% and 40.34% with all of our regional Metropolitan Statistical Areas experiencing positive gains.
In the past year, home prices in our markets have increased: +10.61% in Iowa City; +5.29% in Cedar Rapids; and +7.72% in the Quad Cities. This compares to other cities: Des Moines +12.00% and Chicago +8.51%. Of course, there is variation based on price range and location of properties, with more affordable properties appreciating more and expensive properties appreciating less.
“House price appreciation continued to wane in the fourth quarter,” said Dr. Polkovnichenko, Supervisory Economist in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “House prices grew at a much slower pace in recent quarters amid higher mortgage rates and a decline in mortgage applications. These negative pressures were partially offset by historically low inventory.”
“It just makes sense,” according to Caroline Ruhl, “that as mortgage rates have risen from 3% to 6.0% and are climbing, some buyers have paused due to affordability and some sellers have decided to stay put in their homes and retain their 2% - 3% mortgages.”
Basically, it’s true that it costs more to buy a home today than it did last year,
but the same is true for renting. This means, either way, a buyer or renter is going to be paying more.
The difference is with homeownership, owners are also gaining equity over time, which helps grow their
net worth. The question becomes “what makes more sense for you?”
About Ruhl&Ruhl Realtors
A family-owned company since 1862, Ruhl&Ruhl Realtors has grown to 320 sales associates, 61 employees, and ten offices, selling more than 5,200 homes in eastern Iowa, northwest Illinois, and southwest Wisconsin. The company has residential sales offices in Bettendorf, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Davenport, DeWitt, Dubuque, Iowa City, and Muscatine Iowa; and in Moline, Illinois. For more information on Ruhl&Ruhl Realtors, visit their website at www.RuhlHomes.com.