Home price growth hit record high in July

“The past few months have been extraordinary not only for the level of price gains, but also for the consistency of gains across the country,” said Craig Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

July marked the fourth consecutive month of record price appreciation, he said.

But the data suggests the market may start to cool. Price growth slowed slightly in three of the 20 cities tracked by the index: Detroit, Cleveland and Washington, DC

“There are signs that things may be starting to stabilize,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, economist at Oxford Economics. “It has to stabilize at some point.”

The 10-City Case-Shiller Index gained 19.1% for the year ended July, compared to an 18.5% increase in June. The 20 cities index rose 19.9%, following an annual gain of 19.1% in June.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal expected the 20-city index to gain 20.1%.

In a separate report on Tuesday, the Conference Board said consumer confidence fell in September for the third month in a row, as the spread of Covid-19 and inflation concerns weighed on households.

The consumer confidence index fell to 109.3 in September, from 115.2 revised in August, according to the Conference Board. The share of respondents who said they intended to buy a home in the next six months fell for the third month in a row.

The number of homes for sale fell to an all-time high earlier this year and remains below usual levels, sparking bidding wars between buyers and rapidly pushing up prices.

The Case-Shiller Index, which measures repeat sales data, shows a two-month delay. In recent weeks, the frenzy of the real estate market has slowed down slightly as some buyers have been excluded or have taken a step back from the market. The median sale price of existing homes in August rose 14.9% from the previous year to $ 356,700, the National Association of Realtors announced earlier this month.

Increases in house prices outweigh the benefit of low mortgage rates. Households who bought a home in May, according to Realtor.com, spend almost 21% of their income on monthly mortgage payments, above the average rate for the past decade. Corp News,

parent company of the Wall Street Journal, operates Realtor.com.

“Demand remains quite high compared to just about any other time in history, which always accounts for above-normal price increases,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. But “the affordability calculation is not as straightforward as it used to be.”

Phoenix had the fastest home price growth in the country for the 26th consecutive month, at 32.4%, continuing its record streak in first place. San Diego posted the second fastest growing, at 27.8%.

A separate measure of home price growth by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, also released on Tuesday, revealed a 19.2% increase in house prices in July from the previous year.

—Xavier Fontdegloria contributed to this article.

Write to David Harrison at [email protected] and Nicole Friedman at [email protected]