Beautifully restored old craftsman style home.
The West is still the best as Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco notch double-digit gains
The numbers: The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city index rose 0.1%, seasonally adjusted, in July, and was up 5.9% compared with a year ago.
What happened: Home-price gains were weaker in the three-month period ending in July than in the prior month. The Case-Shiller national index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% and was up 6.0% for the year in July, down from a 6.2% increase in June. The more closely-watched 20-city index had notched a 6.4% gain last month. Those were the slowest paces of growth since last summer.
In July, Las Vegas was the number-one metro area yet again, with a 13.7% annual increase. It was followed by Seattle, at 12.1%, and San Francisco, at 10.8%. Only five cities had stronger price gains in July versus in June.
| Metro | Monthly change | 12-month change |
| Atlanta | 0.5% | 5.8 % |
| Boston | 0.1% | 6.0% |
| Charlotte | 0.1% | 5.6 % |
| Chicago | 0.3% | 3.0% |
| Cleveland | 1.4% | 5.7 % |
| Dallas | 0.2% | 5.0% |
| Denver | 0.3% | 8.0% |
| Detroit | 0.4% | 6.2% |
| Las Vegas | 1.4% | 13.7% |
| Los Angeles | 0.1% | 6.4% |
| Miami | 0.4% | 5.0% |
| Minneapolis | 0.4% | 6.0% |
| New York | 0.1% | 3.4% |
| Phoenix | 0.7% | 7.5% |
| Portland | 0.5% | 5.6% |
| San Diego | 0.0% | 6.2% |
| San Francisco | 0.6% | 10.8% |
| Seattle | 0.0% | 12.1% |
| Tampa | 0.6% | 6.8% |
| Washington | 0.2% | 2.7% |
Big picture: “Rising home prices are beginning to catch up with housing,” said David Blitzer, who chairs the committee that compiles the price indexes. If would-be buyers balk at sky-high prices and stay away, prices should reflect that. The question now is whether this slight dip will lure more buyers back and kick-start more price growth.
The chart below shows how prices in San Francisco, which earlier in the housing recovery was one of the strongest housing markets for a long stretch, cooled rapidly — and then rebounded.
What they’re saying: “Amidst homebuyers’ budget constraints and slight improvements in supply levels, home prices grew at a slower pace last quarter,” economists at mortgage financier Freddie Mac said Monday, before the Case-Shiller release. “For the year, we anticipate that home prices will increase 5.5%, with the growth rate moderating to 4.5% in 2019.”
See: This chart shows the haves and have-nots of the housing market, and it’s getting worse
Also on Tuesday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, regulator of Freddie and its counterpart Fannie Mae, released its home price index, which also showed deceleration. Nationally, prices grew an annual 6.4% in July, FHFA said, down sharply from 6.8% in June, May, and April — and even lower than some of the yearly gains notched earlier in the year.
Market reaction: The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury noteTMUBMUSD10Y, +1.14% , which mortgage rates often follow, has jumped in recent weeks as investors grow more certain that a Federal Reserve interest rate increase is in the cards.
By ANDREA RIQUIER
Source: MarketWatch, September 2018
