U.S. home price growth slows in June - S&P Dow Jones Indices

S&P reported on Tuesday its Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas, rose 2.1 percent y-o-y in June, following an unrevised 2.4 percent y-o-y increase in May. That was the smallest annual advance in house prices since August 2012.

Economists had expected an advance of 2.4 percent y-o-y.

Phoenix (+5.8 percent y-o-y), Las Vegas (+5.5 percent y-o-y) and Tampa (+4.7 percent y-o-y) recorded the highest y-o-y gains in June.

Meanwhile, the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which measures all nine U.S. census divisions, was up 3.1 percent y-o-y in June, down from 3.3 percent y-o-y in the previous month.

Home price gains continue to trend down, but may be leveling off to a sustainable level,” noted Philip Murphy, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Governance at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The average YOY gain declined to 3.0% in June, down from 3.1% the prior month. However, fewer cities (12) experienced lower YOY price gains than in May (13). The southwest (Phoenix and Las Vegas) remains the regional leader in home price gains, followed by the southeast (Tampa and Charlotte). With three of the bottom five cities (Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego), much of the west coast is challenged to sustain YOY gains. For the second month in a row, however, only Seattle experienced outright decline with YOY price change of -1.3%. The U.S. National Home Price NSA Index YOY price change in June 2019 of 3.1% is exactly half of what it was in June 2018. While housing has clearly cooled off from 2018, home price gains in most cities remain positive in low single digits. Therefore, it is likely that current rates of change will generally be sustained barring an economic downturn.”