After falling for months, home prices are rising again. Here's why.
CBSN
After falling for seven months, U.S. home prices are rising again as the spring house-hunting season heats up amid a shortage of properties on the market.
Home prices increased 0.7% nationwide in March after growing 2.1% in February, according the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller housing index, a barometer of housing prices. The increase surprised economists, who had predicted the index would stay flat. The index is now just 3.6% below its peak in June of last year, according to S&P.
"Two months of increasing prices do not a definitive recovery make, but March's results suggest that the decline in home prices that began in June 2022 may have come to an end," said Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, in a statement. "That said, the challenges posed by current mortgage rates and the continuing possibility of economic weakness are likely to remain a headwind for housing prices for at least the next several months."
After four days of voting, with more than 400 million people eligible across 27 countries, European voters have pulled the bloc's 720-seat parliament farther to the right than it has ever been. The European Parliament, for the next five years, will now have a record number of far-right legislators. Far-right parties made gains in Europe's top three economies — Germany, France and Italy — with gains by politicians who campaigned against immigration, against support for Ukraine and against climate policy.
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference is typically a springboard for the company to announce new tech features for its software programs, and not as flashy as its yearly September event to trumpet its latest iPhone rollout. But this year, the WWDC could be a make-or-break moment for the tech giant.