Home Prices Still Climbing, but Slowing Down Year-over-Year
US home prices rose more than expected in September, according to a report issued Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s and Case-Shiller. The report showed that prices rose 0.3 percent from August to September, and were up 4.9 percent on a year-over-year basis. The annual increase was smaller than August’s 5.6 percent uptick from the previous year, but outpaced the consensus projection of economists in a recent Bloomberg survey, which called for a year-over-year increase of 4.6 percent. ON a monthly basis, those economists predicted a 0.1 percent jump. The report illustrates that while prices are still on the rise nationally, the pace of price growth is slowing as the housing market becomes more stable.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index tracks home values in the nation’s 20 largest cities, compiling that data into a broader overlook for the entire nation. Of those 20 cities, Miami saw the biggest annual increase in prices in September, at 10.3 percent, followed by a 9.1 percent year-over-year uptick in Las Vegas, the first single-digit year-over-year increase in that market since October 2012. Each of the 20 cities in the index saw year-over-year gains in September, with Cleveland showing the smallest, at 0.8 percent. Home prices have been stabilizing in recent months after strong advances through 2013 and the beginning of this year. September, in fact, marked the 10th month in a row that year-over-year gains fell short of those in the previous month.
