US home prices have seen a consistent increase, marking July as the 14th consecutive month of record highs, despite experiencing the slowest pace of growth in 2024, as reported by S&P Global's division S&P Dow Jones Indices. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index demonstrated a month-over-month rise of 0.2% in July following seasonal adjustments, reflecting stability from the previous month.
Furthermore, the seasonally adjusted 10- and 20-city composites rose approximately 0.3% in July, which represents a slowdown from June's increases of 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively. When analyzed on an annual basis, national home prices surged by 5% in July, a decrease from June's yearly gain of 5.5%.
The 10-city index recorded a 6.8% rise, down from 7.4%, while the 20-city composite showed a 5.9% increase compared to June's 6.5%. Brian Luke, the head of commodities, real and digital assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, mentioned, “Accounting for seasonality of home purchases, we have witnessed 14 consecutive record highs in our National Index.
Overall, the indices continue to grow at a rate that exceeds long-run averages after accounting for inflation.” Among the 20 cities assessed, New York reported the highest annual price increase in July at 8.8%, followed closely by Las Vegas and Los Angeles, which saw gains of 8.2% and 7.2%, respectively.
Conversely, Portland recorded the smallest year-over-year rise in home prices at just 0.8%. Additionally, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) noted a modest climb of 0.1% in home prices on a seasonally adjusted basis for July, revising June's previous decrease of 0.1% to a flat rate. The anticipated rise from a Bloomberg survey had forecasted a 0.2% increase.
Annually, the FHFA reported a 4.5% rise in home prices for July. Anju Vajja, the deputy director of the FHFA's research and statistics division, commented, “For the third consecutive month US house prices showed little movement. Gradually declining mortgage rates and relatively flat house prices may improve housing affordability.”.