Home price dive in one chart. Ouch.

Just over 2 weeks ago, we charted about how the combination of higher borrowing costs and still-elevated home prices had created one of the least affordable housing markets in modern history for would-be buyers.

However, data out this week from the NAR revealed that some of the air is coming out of the market, as existing home prices fell 0.2% in Feb 2023 (vs. Feb 2022), breaking an 11-year-streak of continuous annual increases.

Interestingly, the number of homes sold jumped some 14.5% in February. That suggests there is demand from those waiting on the sidelines, standing by for any favorable fluctuations in the mortgage market where interest rates still hover around 7%. As Fortune put it, the real winners of the pandemic may be the home-buyers who managed to lock in a mortgage rate around 2%.