The latest results of the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices revealed that national home prices rose 8.4% annually in October, keeping up the robust price growth the market has seen despite the COVID-19 crisis.
October’s gain was up from September’s 7.0% price uptick and was the largest increase since March 2014. The growth brought the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index to a new high, 25% above the peak it reached before the Great Recession.
The national index also rose 1.37% from September, the largest monthly increase since the spring of 2013.
“We’ve noted before that a trend of accelerating increases in the National Composite Index began in August 2019 but was interrupted in May and June as COVID-related restrictions produced modestly decelerating price gains. Since June, our monthly readings have shown accelerating growth in home prices, and October’s results emphatically emphasize that trend,” said Craig J. Lazzara, managing director and global head of investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
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“Although the full history of the pandemic’s impact on housing prices is yet to be written, the data from the last several months are consistent with the view that COVID has encouraged potential buyers to move from urban apartments to suburban homes.”
Notably, the Case-Shiller data reflects that prices in larger cities are growing at a slower rate than elsewhere. The 10-City Composite’s annual increase came in at 7.5% — a smaller gain than the those posted by both the national index and the 20-City Composite, which grew 7.9% year over year.
Still, price gains remained broadly based, with all 19 cities for which there was available data (the indices are still lacking data for Detroit for COVID-related reasons) logging annual price gains. All 19 also saw annual price growth accelerate from September to October.
For the 17th consecutive month, Phoenix led cities with a year-over-year price increase of 12.7% in October. Phoenix was followed by Seattle (11.7%) and San Diego (11.6%).
