Home Prices Surge in Phoenix
Home prices rose 3.2% nationally in August, according to the latest S&P Global Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index, but they jumped more than 6% in Phoenix.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
U.S. home prices are still rising, but the pace of growth continues to slow, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index (not seasonally adjusted) for August that was released Tuesday. The year-over-year increase of 3.2% was 0.1 percentage points above the July increase.
Home prices jumped by 6.3% year over year in Phoenix, the largest increase by far among those in the index’s 20-city composite group. Prices rose 4.5% in Charlotte and 4.3% in Tampa. San Francisco was the only one of the 20 cities to post a year-over-year price decline, and that was just 0.1 percentage points.
On a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, the national index rose by 0.2%, while the 10-city and 20-city indexes were flat month over month. Seasonally adjusted, the 20-city index rose by 2% and the 10-city index rose by 1.5%. The consensus economists’ estimate called for the 20-city average home price to rise by 2.5% year over year unadjusted and to fall by 0.1% month over month adjusted.
Among all U.S. cities included in the August 20-city home price index, 15 posted NSA month-over-month price increases. Only San Francisco (down 0.5%), New York (down 0.4%), Seattle (down 0.3%), San Diego (down 0.2%) and Denver (down 0.2%) posted declines.
Philip Murphy, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Governance at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said, “The U.S. National Home Price NSA Index trend remained intact with a year-over-year price change of 3.2%. However, a shift in regional leadership may be underway beneath the headline national index. Phoenix saw an increase in its YOY price change to 6.3% and retained its leading position. However, Las Vegas dropped from number two to number eight among the cities of the 20-City Composite, falling from a 4.7% YOY change in July to only 3.3% in August. Meanwhile, the Southeast region included three of the top four cities. Charlotte, Tampa, and Atlanta all recorded solid YOY performance with price changes of 4.5%, 4.3%, and 4.0%, respectively. In the Northwest, Seattle’s YOY change turned positive (0.7%) after three consecutive months of negative YOY price changes.”
Mortgage loan rates increased slightly to 3.86% Tuesday morning, according to Mortgage News Daily.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
