Single-Family Home Price Gains Continue to Decelerate

Home prices are continuing to come down at a fast pace amid higher mortgage interest rates which have more than doubled over the past year. Home prices rose 10.6% year-over-year in September, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index which measures average home prices across the nation. While home price increases continue at a robust clip, the annual rate of acceleration slowed over the past six months. The annual increase in September was down from the 12.9% jump in August and well below the all-time high of 20.8% in March. Moreover, home prices fell 1% from August to September, the third straight month-over-month decline. This pattern of deceleration was apparent at a regional level. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index posted a 10.4% annual gain in September, down from 13.1% the previous month. All 20 cities in the index reported lower price increases in September 2022 compared to August 2022. The biggest month-to-month declines occurred in the West Region of the country, with the deepest declines happening in San Francisco (-2.9%), Seattle (-2.9%), Las Vegas (-2.4%) and Phoenix (-2.2%). On an annual basis, the South Region continued to post some of the nation’s strongest gains, led by Miami (24.6%), Tampa (23.8%) and Charlotte (17.8%). The smallest year-over-year gains were seen in San Francisco (2.3%), Seattle (6.2%), Minneapolis (6.5%) and Washington DC (6.5%).