Are you feeling confused about the state of home prices?🤔

Maybe you've been hearing a lot of conflicting information, or maybe it's just hard to tell what's going on with all the different terms floating around.

We're here to help. Let's break down the distinction between these words:

➡️ APPRECIATION is when home prices increase—it's when you're getting more for your money.

➡️ DEPRECIATION is when home prices decrease—that's just losing money!

➡️ DECELERATION is when home prices continue to appreciate but at a slower or more moderate pace—that means you're still getting ahead but not as quickly as before.

On a national basis, the experts agree that we are currently experiencing deceleration. This means that although home prices are still increasing, the rate of increase has slowed down compared to the past year.

Data from CoreLogic reveal that home prices appreciated by an average of 15% nationwide in 2021. However, earlier this year, that appreciation was as high as 20%.

In fact, the rate of that appreciation has slowed down to 18% in the last few months. This means that while price growth is still positive compared to last year, it's slowing down.

As the Monthly Mortgage Monitor from Black Knight explains:

“Annual home price growth dropped by nearly two percentage points . . . – the greatest single-month slowdown on record since at least the early 1970s. . . While June’s slowdown was record-breaking, home price growth would need to decelerate at this pace for six more months to drive annual appreciation back to 5%, a rate more in line with long-run averages.”

Home values are still way above average, which means that we would have to see a lot more deceleration for home price growth to align with more standard rates. That would still not be "home price depreciation."

TO SUM UP

Home prices are not decreasing or depreciating nationwide.

They are simply slowing down or moderating. While some individual markets may experience declines, home prices are overall forecast to appreciate across the country.

When we look at the situation as a whole, none of the experts believe that home prices will net depreciate or fall. They are all predicting ongoing appreciation.