The price of homes in the United States has been growing at a very slow pace for almost two years

According to the latest S & P Corelogic report, Case-Shiller, home prices in the United States continued to climb in September, but recorded their lowest growth rate in almost two years.

The group's national house price index showed that prices had risen 5.5% over the previous year, up from 5.7% in August, as rising mortgage rates kept potential buyers out of the way.

The composite index of 10 cities, which measures the value of real estate in 10 major markets, rose 4.8% on an annual basis, compared with 5.2% the previous month. The growth of the composite index of the 20 cities went from 5.5% to 5.1%.

"House prices, as well as housing sales and construction data confirm the slowdown in the housing market," said David M. Blitzer, General Manager and Chairman of the Indices Committee at S & P Dow Jones Indices. "The recent increase in mortgage rates is a contributing factor to the weakness of the housing market. Currently, the national average for a 30-year fixed rate loan is 4.9%, one percentage point higher than last year. "

The US real estate market has seen prices rise while homes available for sale were scarce. In recent months, mortgage rates have reached multi-year highs in tandem with rising Federal Reserve interest rates and rising bond yields, making affordability more difficult for homebuyers.

Sales of new and existing single-family homes peaked a year ago, Blitzer noted. Existing home sales declined 9.3% while housing starts decreased 8.7% from November 2017. At the same time, the National Homebuilder Association's Confidence Index recently registered its biggest decline in more than four years.

Sixteen towns of the Case-Shiller index of 20 cities recorded smaller annual price gains in September. Prices fell in Seattle month after month, just months after house values ​​climbed to double-digit annual rates.

Las Vegas recorded the largest price increases among the 20 cities, an increase of 13.5% in the last 12 months. The smallest increases were registered in New York and Washington at 2.6% and 2.9% respectively.