More bad news for anyone who wants to ever own a home: Home prices just went up again. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index rose 6% in January, data released today shows; that’s up from a 5.6% increase in the previous month, setting the fastest annual gain since 2022. “On a seasonal adjusted basis, home prices have continued to break through previous all-time highs set last year,” Brian Luke, head of commodities for S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in an accompanying statement.

Renting isn’t necessarily affordable either, but it is cheaper than buying, and could be for years to come, according to Capital Economics. That should show just how unaffordable buying has become in a housing market beset by sky-high home prices and mortgage rates that more than doubled in a short period of time. Still, “as mortgage rates fall, we think the difference between the cost of buying and renting will narrow from the current all-time highs,” Capital Economics’ property economist, Thomas Ryan, wrote in a new housing market update. “But even by 2026, renting will remain by far the more cost-effective option.”

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Capital Economics recently said the national average house price has risen almost 50% since the start of the pandemic. And in this note, Ryan wrote that rent as a share of disposable income among 25- to 34-year-olds was 40.5% as of the fourth quarter of last year, dipping from a peak of 41.6%. So clearly, both rents and home prices are costly.