Rare Slippage in Home Prices, Case-Shiller Reports
S&P Corelogic’s average calculations over the prior three-month period still indicates “very broad strength.”
Home prices measured year-over-year slipped for the first time in months, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices for April, an indication that growth is slowing.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price NSA Index reported a 20.4% annual gain in April, down from 20.6% in the previous month.
This showed “initial (although inconsistent) signs of a deceleration in the growth rate of US home prices,” Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, said in a prepared statement, adding “a more-challenging macroeconomic environment may not support extraordinary home price growth for much longer.”
Most metrics in the report indicated “very broad strength” in the housing market, as all 20 cities notched double-digit price increases for the 12 months ended in April, Lazzara said.
“We noted last month that mortgage financing has become more expensive as the Federal Reserve ratchets up interest rates, a process that had only just begun when April data were gathered,” Lazzara said.
The Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for April is a three-month average of February, March and April closing prices. The Calculated Risk blog commented that “February closing prices include some contracts signed last December, so there is a significant lag to this data.”