Single-Family Home Price Gains Decelerate at Fastest Pace on Record

After the nation’s single-family home prices surged, they are coming down at an even faster pace amid higher mortgage interest rates which have more than doubled over the past year. Home prices rose 13% year-over-year in August, 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 rate of acceleration slowed over the last five months. The annual increase in August was down from the 15.6% jump in July and well below the all-time high of 20.8% in March. Moreover, the deceleration in price increases from July to August (-2.6%) was the largest decline in the index’s 27-year history. This pattern of deceleration was apparent at a regional level. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index posted a 13.1% annual gain in August, down from 16% the previous month. All 20 cities in the index reported lower year-over-year price increases in August 2022 compared to July 2022. The deepest month-to-month declines occurred on the West Coast, with San Francisco (-4.3%), Seattle (-3.9%) and San Diego (-2.8%) falling the most. The largest year-over-year price gains were in Miami (28.6%), Tampa (28.0%) and Charlotte (21.3%). The smallest annual gains were seen in San Francisco (5.6%), Minneapolis (7.6%) and Washington DC (7.4%).