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Home prices rose in Q3, but prices grew more slowly overall than in the beginning of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).
What’s happening: “Nationwide, the median single-family, existing-home sales price rose 16% in the third quarter to $363,700 from a year before, a record in data going back to 1968,” according to the National Association of Realtors.

Contributing factors: “The ability for some households to work remotely some or all of the time continues to spur home-buying demand, along with low mortgage-interest rates, real-estate agents and economists say. Many buyers are looking for more space, and some are willing to move to a new metro area in search of a different quality of life or lower cost of living.”

Strongest and weakest: Austin, Texas, and its metro area had the highest median-price boost, up 33.5% from Q3 2020. Next highest was Naples, Florida, and its metro area, which was up 32% from last year, and then Boise, Idaho, with an increase of 31.5%.

• The only region to see a decline in prices from 2020 was Shreveport, Louisiana, where median prices declined 1.5%, according to the NAR.

In related news: As we also saw earlier this week, high prices are hitting consumers’ budgets hard, with the consumer price index jumping 6.2% in October from the previous year—the biggest leap since 1990. NAM Chief Economist Chad Moutray had this to say about the data:

• “Overall, price pressures for consumers remain very elevated. The data are expected to stabilize over the next year, especially once bottlenecks start to improve. A more favorable base comparison next year will also help. Yet consumer prices are predicted to continue growing by more than we have become accustomed to, with the consumer price index rising around 2.5% year-over-year by the end of 2022.”