In the second half of 2022, a housing correction picked up speed in Western markets such as Seattle and Phoenix, where home prices fell 10.4% and 16.3%, respectively, from their peak. But as the housing market moves into a typically busy spring season, that correction is losing steam.
Among the 200 largest housing markets tracked by the Zillow Home Value Index, just 38% saw a month-over-month home price decline in February, compared with 79% of markets that posted a month-over-month drop at the height of the correction in September, Fortune reports.
Why is the home price correction—which was already absent in some Northeast and Midwest markets—losing steam?
For one thing, we’ve entered the seasonal period where demand picks up. Second, inventory in March was 49.5% below levels hit in March 2019. Third, housing affordability has improved a bit over the past few months as mortgage rates came back under 7% and many markets saw home prices come down a bit.
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