Eighteen of 20 cities across the country reported increases in prices month-over-month before seasonal adjustment.
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In the 13-county metro home prices were up 0.7 percent from July to August, while prices year-over-year prices increased 3.5 percent.
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index recorded a 4.7 percent annual increase in August 2015, up slightly from the 4.6 percent increase recorded in July.
Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow, said she expected relative stability in home price appreciation for the foreseeable future. The 20-city index gained 5.1% year-over-year compared with 4.9% a month earlier.
Home prices have risen at a 5 percent pace for most of this year, which economists see as more sustainable than last year’s double-digit gains. Month over month, Portland posted a 1.1% gain and Denver prices rose 0.9%. The index measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average.
Today’s release of the Case Shiller Chicago home price index for August once again shows Chicago pretty much in last place among 20 metro areas in terms of price appreciation.
On a monthly basis, home prices in the 20-city index adjusted for seasonal variations increased 0.1 percent in August after falling 0.2 percent the month before. More recent indicators largely have been strong.
But on Monday, the Commerce Department said that new home sales tumbled 11.5 per cent from August to September.
David M. Blitzer, the managing director and chairman of the Index Committee for S&P Dow Jones Indices, explained why the current home price growth is a positive for homeowners. Sales of existing homes are running about 5.5 million units annually with inventories of about five months of sales.
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The latest S&P/Case-Shiller report on national home prices also finds that prices have surged from their lows after the housing meltdown of 2007-2009 at a quicker pace than they did during the 1997-to-2005 housing boom – and driven less by inflation.
