Home prices continued to rise in September, albeit at a more sluggish pace, according to dueling reports released Tuesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the S&P Dow Jones Indices
U.S. home prices continued to rise in September, albeit at a slower pace, according to reports released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI). The FHFA has attributed the slowdown to elevated house prices and mortgage rates.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices showed that home prices experienced slowed growth as the National Home Price NSA Index rose 3.9 percent on an annual basis, down from a 4.3 percent gain the previous month.
The analytics firm’s 10-City Composite and 20-City Composite, which tracks home prices across the largest U.S. cities, rose 5.2 percent and 4.6 percent, down from a 6 percent and 5.2 percent increase a month earlier.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. National Index rose 0.3 percent month over month, while the 20-City Composite and 10-City Composite was up 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent month over month.
“Home price growth stalled in the third quarter, after a steady start to 2024,” Brian D. Luke, CFA, Head of Commodities, Real & Digital Assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said.“The slight downtick could be attributed to technical factors as the seasonally adjusted figures boasted a 16th-consecutive all-time high.”
“We continue to see above-trend price growth in the Northeast and Midwest, growing 5.7 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, led by New York, Cleveland, and Chicago,” Luke continued. “The Big Apple has taken the top spot for five-consecutive months, pushing the region ahead of all others since August 2023. The South region reported its slowest growth in over a year, rising 2.8 percent, barely above current inflation levels.”
New York led with a 7.5 percent annual gain, followed by Cleveland (7.1 percent) and Chicago (6.9 percent). Denver showed the smallest growth at 0.2 percent.
The FHFA’S House Price Index, on the other hand, included data for the third quarter of the year, showing a 4.3 percent increase between Q3 2023 and Q3 2024. Compared to the second quarter of the year, home prices grew 0.7 percent, according to the FHFA. The seasonally adjusted monthly index for September was up 0.7 percent from August.
“U.S. house price growth slowed in the third quarter, continuing a trend that started in the fourth quarter of the previous year,” Dr. Anju Vajja, Deputy Director for FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics, said. “While house prices continued to increase because housing demand outpaced the locked-in housing supply, elevated house prices and mortgage rates likely contributed to the slowdown in price growth.”
The FHFA also reported that nationally, the U.S. housing market has experienced positive annual appreciation each quarter since the start of 2012.
Between the third quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2024, home prices rose in 49 states. The states with the highest annual appreciation were Hawaii, (10.4 percent), Delaware (8.5 percent), Rhode Island (8.4 percent), Connecticut (8.2 percent) and New Jersey (8.1 percent).
Ninety-one out of the 100 largest metropolitan areas saw an increase in home price growth over the previous four quarters, with Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Florida posting the highest growth at 10.8 percent. North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida saw the largest price decline during the same period at 6.4 percent.
All nine U.S. census divisions had positive house price changes year-over-year, with the East North Central posting the strongest growth at 6.8 percent from Q3 2023 to Q3 2024. The West South Central division recorded the smallest appreciation during the same period at 1.6 percent.
Source: inman.com
