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54 | M REPORT O R I G I NAT I O N S E R V I C I N G DATA G O V E R N M E N T S E C O N DA R Y M A R K E T THE LATEST DATA Home Prices Growing Faster Prices rose by more than 4% in February. C oreLogic's Home Price Index (HPI) reports that home prices rose 4.1% annually in February. This represents an increase from February 2019's gain of 4%. The HPI has increased on a year-over-year basis every month since February 2012 and has gained 63.6% since March 2011. The overall HPI was 10.1% higher than its pre-crisis peak in April 2006. Homes in the lowest- price tier rose 6% annually in February, compared to 5.2% for the middle-price tier. The middle-to-mod- erate price tier saw home prices rise 4.5% and 3.6% for the high-price tier. CoreLogic also reports that homes in the lowest- price tier since 2011 have gained 98.6%. Homes in the highest-price tier have gained 49.5% since 2011. Idaho, once again, led the nation in annual appre- ciation at 11.4% in February. New Mexico was a closed second at just over 9%. Connecticut was the only state to report home price decrease at 0.6%. Prices in 41 states, including the District of Columbia, have risen above their pre-crisis peaks. Home prices in Connecticut during the month were the farthest below their all-time HPI high, but 18% below their July 2006 peak. Utah reported the biggest dip in price growth, rising by 5.6% in February, which is a drop from the 10.6% gain in February 2019. This report comes after Realtor.com revealed the nation's inventory fell 15.7% year-over-year in March, which is faster than the 15.3% annual drop in February. This equates to a loss of 191,000 listings compared to March 2019. Realtor.com added the year-over- year decline in inventory could be "softening," which the report says could be an early indicator of slowing buyer activity due to COVID-19. The volume of newly-listed properties in March fell by 6.4% since last year and for newly-listed properties for the week ending on March 28 fell by 34% annually—the biggest decline this year. Housing inventory in the 50 largest U.S. metros declined by 17.1% year-over-year in March. The metro of Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, saw the largest de- cline in inventory at 42.2%. Only Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (3.6%) saw inventory increase over the year. Available Home Inventory Slumps 15.7% in March Loss of more than 190,000 listings reported over the past year. I nsight from Realtor.com reveals that the national in- ventory fell 15.7% annually in March, which is faster than the 15.3% year-over-year drop reported in February. This equates to a loss of 191,000 listings compared to March 2019. Realtor.com added the year-over- year decline in inventory could be "softening," which the report says could be an early indicator of slowing buyer activity due to COVID-19. The volume of newly-listed properties in March fell by 6.4% since last year and for newly-listed properties for the week ending on March 28 fell by 34% annually—the biggest decline this year. Housing inventory in the 50 largest U.S. metros declined by 17.1% year-over-year in March. The metro of Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, saw the largest de- cline in inventory at 42.2%. Only Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (3.6%) saw inventory increase over the year. Realtor.com also reported the average property is selling quicker than last year, as homes sold in 60 days in March, which is four days quicker than March 2019, The average listing price grew by 3.8% to $320,000 in March, which is a slight drop from the prior month's 3.9% annual growth. However, prices for the week ending on March 28 grew by just 2.5% year-over-year—the slow- est pace of growth this year and the slowest since data has been tracked since 2013. An additional forecast from NerdWallet expects mortgage rates to fall below the levels of March, possibly settling in around 3.5%, or lower, through April. "Low and steady rates would please home buyers, too—those who brave the housing market during an epidemic," the report said NerdWallet said rates rose slightly in March due to the "tur- bulence" in bond markets. "Bondholders sold their bonds to stockpile cash. These sales depressed bond prices, including prices for mortgage-backed securi- ties, which pushed mortgage rates higher," the report said. A volatile market is sending mixed signals for prospective buy- ers. While the Mortgage Bankers Association reported applications rose 15.3% from the prior week ending on March 27, the purchase index fell 24% year-over-year. "Mortgage rates and applica- tions continue to experience significant volatility from the economic and financial market uncertainty caused by the coro- navirus crisis. After two weeks of sizeable increases, mortgage rates dropped back to the lowest level in MBA's survey, which in turn led to a 25% jump in refinance applications," said Joel Kan, MBA's AVP of Economic and Industry Forecasting. "The bleaker economic outlook, along with the first wave of realized job losses reported that unemployment claims numbers, likely caused po- tential homebuyers to pull back. Purchase applications were down over 10%, and after double-digit annual growth to start 2020, activ- ity has fallen off last year's pace for two straight weeks." The volume of newly- listed properties in March fell by 6.4% since last year and for newly-listed properties for the week ending on March 28 fell by 34% annually—the biggest decline this year.