Home price appreciation has continued to slow

National gain was 3.4% in June according to price index

Home price appreciation has continued to slow

The slowdown in home price appreciation continued in May according to new data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller indexes.

The National Home Price NSA Index covering all nine census areas gained 3.4% year-over-year, down from a 3.5% annual gain in April. Both the 10-city (2.2%) and 20-city (2.4%) composites also eased by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous month.

Among the 20 cities, Las Vegas led the way with a 6.4% year-over-year price increase, followed by Phoenix (5.7%) and Tampa (5.1%). Seven of the 20 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending May 2019 versus the year ending April 2019.

"Nationally, year-over-year home price gains were lower in May than in April, but not dramatically so and a broad-based moderation continued," says Philip Murphy, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Governance at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Among 20 major U.S. city home price indices, the average YOY gain has been declining for the past year or so and now stands at the moderate nominal YOY rate of 3.1%.”

Before seasonal adjustment, the National Index gained 0.8% with the 10-city and 20-city indexes gaining 0.5% and 0.6% respectively.

Housing market analysis

Dr. Ralph B. McLaughlin, deputy chief economist and executive of research and insights for CoreLogic has given his analysis of what the data means for the housing market.

“The US housing market cooldown continued in May, signaling the longest period of price growth anemia since the Great Recession,” he said. “However, coupled with the recent drop in mortgage rates and incomes rising faster than inflation, the transition to a more balanced market should allow the industry to enter a period of sustainability into the foreseeable future.”