According to the latest Residential Price Index [1] report from FNC [2], home prices are still on the way up, just not at the pace they used to be.
FNC found that despite continued signs of leveling off in home price appreciation, U.S. home prices were up another 0.8 percent from May to June and 2.3 percent throughout the second quarter.
According to FNC, whose data excludes distressed properties, year-over-year growth is decelerating as expected. The rate of growth in price appreciation is down to 8 percent; in February, the rate was at 9.4 percent.
FNC expects July home prices to also trend upward, thanks to record lows in the number of mortgage defaults and foreclosures, favorable mortgage rates, and continued job growth.
This snapshot of the market jibes, mostly, with a recent report [3] from the National Association of Realtors [4], which found that while home prices are slowly rising in 71 percent of the metro markets it studied, the numbers reflect a slowdown from the first quarter, when prices rose in 74 percent of metros and 37 areas saw gains higher than 10 percent. This, according to NAR, brings national year-over-year appreciation to its slowest pace since the beginning of the housing recovery.
According to NAR's released report, which does include foreclosures and short sales, the median existing single-family home price across April, May, and June nationally was up 4.4 percent from a year ago. That rate of growth was about half the gain recorded in the first quarter.
FNC studied the 100 top metros for its latest index and found that on a quarterly basis, prices increased faster during the second quarter than the first. On a year-over-year basis, "the indices continue to exhibit moderating growth," according to the report.
Prices were up from May to June in most markets, though Washington D.C., Phoenix, San Antonio, and St. Louis showed a negative month-to-month change.
Sacramento, New York, and Charlotte show the largest price gains during the month—1.9 percent, 1.7 percent, and 1.7 percent respectively. This is the second consecutive month that Sacramento and Charlotte saw a sizeable month-to-month price increase.
On a year-over-year basis, Sacramento, Riverside, and Miami led national growth, each showing double-digit price gains amid a notable slowdown in the annual rate of price appreciation across much of the country, the report stated. . The Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Cleveland markets largely remain outliers, and their latest numbers (from June) continue to point to weakening prices year-over-year.