U.S. home prices rose solidly in June, another sign of health in the housing market.
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Price gains have remained largely flat in 2015 at just over 4 per cent nationally, after low double-digit gains in 2013. Denver, San Francisco, and Dallas again experienced the biggest year-over-year home appreciation among the 20 cities with price increases of 10.2 percent, 9.5 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively.
Sales rates are tracking at roughly double the pace of price growth, a mismatch that points ahead to price acceleration given how thin inventories are right now in the housing sector.
Annualized price growth was 5.6%, while prices in the second quarter rose 5.4% compared to the second quarter of 2014. House prices rose 5.4% from a year earlier.
Before seasonal adjustment, the National index and 20-City Composite both reported gains of 1.0% month-over-month in June.
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city price index slipped 0.1 percent in June from May.
This is the 16th consecutive quarterly price increase in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index.
Month-over-month home price gains were modest, according to the report. That report, based the prices of homes that carry loans sold to or guaranteed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, showed that second-quarter house prices were up 5.4 percent from 2014 – similar to the broad trend that Case-Shiller is seeing.
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But Blitzer noted possible clouds looming over the housing picture: the Fed’s plan to raise its benchmark federal funds rate this year and volatility in the stock market. These have changed for the better in the last few months.
