Home prices reached all-time highs in August, growing for the 15th month in a row, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. But the 4.2% year-over-year rate of growth was the slowest since mortgage rates peaked in 2023.
Prices have decelerated for the past six months, pushing appreciation rates below their long-running average of 4.8%, said Brian D. Luke, head of commodities, real and digital assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement.
“As students went back to school, home price shoppers appeared less willing to push the index higher than in the summer months,” Luke said.
The 10- and 20-City Composite Indices, which track home prices in some of the country’s largest cities, also showed signs of strain for home price growth. The 10-City Composite saw an annual increase of 6.0%, down from a 6.8% annual increase in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a year-over-year increase of 5.2%.
Appreciation are beginning to show signs of strain despite some favorable conditions in August, said Selma Hepp, CoreLogic’s chief economist, in a statement.
“Despite much-needed optimism, brought by a sharp decline in mortgage rates in August, the boost was short lived and not enough to renew homebuyers’ interest,” Hepp said. “As a result, home prices continued to weaken relative to their seasonal trend and year-over-year gains took a step back.”
Month over month, the U.S. National Index saw a -0.1% drop before being seasonally adjusted, the 20-City Composite saw -0.3% decline and 10-City Composite a -0.4% returns for this month, respectively.
After seasonal adjustment, the U.S. National Index posted a month-over-month increase of 0.3%, while the 20-City and 10-City Composite reported a monthly rise of 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively.
“Regionally, all markets continue to remain positive, barely,” Luke said. Denver posted the slowest annual gain of all the markets this year at 0.7%, dropping below Portland (0.8%) for the first time since the spring.
