The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded a slightly higher year-over-year gain with a 4.5% annual increase in June 2015 versus a 4.4% increase in May 2015.
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In the Case-Shiller reading, Denver was the city that saw the largest year-on-year increases in June, with prices rising 10.2%. “The price gains have been consistent as the unemployment rate declined with steady inflation and an unchanged Fed policy”, David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.
The missing piece in the housing picture has been housing starts and sales. The 10-city and 20-city indexes saw a 0.9 per cent and 1 per cent change over the month respectively.
The FHFA’s index is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That puts the local housing market down 11.2 percent from its price peak, which occurred in 2006. So the June report accounts for sales that closed in April, May and June, a traditionally busy time for homebuyers and sellers. Home prices in Washington, D.C., rose just 1.6 percent.
“A stock market correction is unlikely to do much damage to the housing market; a full-blown bear market dropping more than 20 percent would present some difficulties for housing and for other economic sectors”.
On month-to-month basis, home prices in the Miami area grew 0.3 percent.
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Yet he also noted that builders have begun work on more homes, a trend that could help stabilize prices. Economists polled by Reuters had projected a 5.1 percent gain.
