Mike Simonsen: How rising rates impact the housing market

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U.S. home prices continued to climb in March as a persistent shortage of homes for sale helped to buoy the housing market, according to the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Home Price Index. And while prospective homebuyers cope with the challenges of rising housing unaffordability, existing homeowners are reaping the benefits of historically strong price gains. Nationwide equity on mortgaged homes soared to a record $16.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2024, with $11 trillion available for leverage while maintaining a 20% equity cushion — also an all-time high. The ICE index showed that home prices increased by a seasonally adjusted 0.42% month over month in March, marking the third consecutive month of above-average price gains, although this was a slight pullback from February’s 0.58% increase. On an annual basis, home price growth eased slightly in March to 5.6%, below the upwardly revised gain of 6% in February. “The recent trend of rising interest rates has dampened homebuyer demand and allowed the inventory of homes for sale to improve,” Andy Walden, ICE’s vice president of enterprise research strategy, said in a statement.  “We’re still very much in a hole from an inventory perspective, but that deficit has fallen from 50% a year ago to 38% in March. Today, with 3.3 months of supply, inventory is still historically low and indicative of a seller’s market. This is helping to keep home price growth resilient even though