The daily business briefing: March 31, 2021

Home prices rise at fastest pace in 15 years, Volkswagen's early April Fools' joke, and more

real estate
(Image credit: Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Home prices rise at fastest pace in 15 years

U.S. home prices rose in January at the fastest pace in 15 years, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index released Tuesday. The index, which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas, jumped by 11.2 percent in the year that ended in January, as buyers competed for a tightly limited supply of properties for sale. There were 1.03 million homes for sale at the end of last month, unchanged from a January level that was the lowest in data that only goes back to 1982, the National Association of Realtors reported in early March. Another reason for the price increases is a surge in demand as many Americans sought more space as they started working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, or felt freer to move farther from their offices.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.