The coronavirus global health crisis and the economic havoc it has wreaked were not enough to deter a rise in home prices so far this year. According to the Radian Home Price Index (HPI), home prices across the U.S. rose in the first six months of 2020 at an annualized rate of 6.3 percent.

The Radian HPI—recently released by Red Bell Real Estate, LLC, a Radian Group Inc. company—also rose 8.1 percent year-over-year (July 2019 to June 2020), which was slightly higher than the year-over-year increase of 7.8 percent recorded last month. The data is based on the estimated values of more than 70 million unique addresses each month, covering all single-family property types and geographies.

According to Radian, this annualized increase confirms that the housing market is getting back on track. As Radian SVP of Data and Analytics Steve Gaenzler explains, “While there has been localized volatility in home prices during the pandemic, prices overall have remained quite resilient. After gains across the U.S. slowed in May, the first half of the year ended on an impressive note, especially given the significant headwinds real estate transactions have faced.”
 
The report also shows that the number of closed real estate sales was higher in the final week of June than in the same week of 2019. That marked the first time since the end of March that weekly counts of closings were higher in 2020 than 2019. That said, Gaenzler emphasizes that the recent surges of coronavirus in areas across the U.S. could potentially alter the upward trajectory of home prices.
 
Other key takeaways from the research include:

• The national median home price in the U.S. rose to $256,740 in June.
• National home prices rose an annualized 6.6 percent during the second quarter.
• Distressed sales in June 2020 represented 5.1 percent of all sales, a decrease from May, when distressed sales represented 6 percent of sales.
• The Midwest and West represented the strongest regions; the Northeast and Southwest, the weakest.
• Months of supply, which helps measure the balance between supply and demand, stood at 4.04 months of supply in June. This was down from 4.51 months in June of last year, and also decreased from May. This is good news for sellers who can expect more price competition and price stability.
• All of the 20 largest metro areas in the U.S. recorded positive price appreciation in the second quarter and first half of 2020. Of the six metros recording a weaker second quarter as compared to the first, three were in California (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco) and the remaining three were in the Mid-Atlantic region (Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Md.; New York, N.Y.).