National HPI shows lowest annual rise since 2015

US home prices saw weakened growth at the start of 2019 with a 4.3% year-over-year rise in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index compared to 4.6% in December.

It was the lowest annual growth since 2015 with only one of the 20 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending January 2019 versus the year ending December 2018.

“In 16 of the 20 cities tracked, price gains were smaller in January 2019 than in January 2018,” explained David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Only Phoenix saw any appreciable acceleration.”

He added that some cities where prices surged in 2017-2018 now face much smaller increases.

Seattle for example, saw annual price gains drop from 12.8% to 4.1% from January 2018 to January 2019. San Francisco saw annual price increases shrink from 10.2% to 1.8% over the same time period.

Monthly gains

Before seasonal adjustment, the National Index posted a month-over-month decrease of 0.2% in January with a 0.3% decrease for the 10-City Composite and a 0.2% decrease for the 20-City Composite.

After seasonal adjustment, the National Index recorded a 0.2% month-over-month increase in January while the 10-City Composite did not post any gains, and the 20-City Composite posted 0.1% month-over-month increase.