U.S. home prices decreased 0.1% in September compared to August, marking the first month-over-month decline this year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
Year over year, home prices were up 4.8% nationally, but the rate of appreciation is slowing. The 10-city and 20-city composites saw year-over-year gains of 4.8% and 4.9%, respectively.
‘The overall trend in home price increases continues to slow down,’ says David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
As of September, average home prices had reached their levels posted in spring 2005.
Charlotte, N.C., and Dallas were the only two cities to see their annual gains increase while Cleveland remained virtually unchanged for the fourth consecutive month, according to the report. All other cities saw their annual gains decelerate.
Miami continued to lead all cities with a 10.3% year-over-year gain. Detroit saw its gains drop to 5.0% from 6.7% the previous month, the report states.
September recorded mixed monthly figures. Nine cities recorded lower monthly figures, while nine posted increases. Los Angeles and New York both reported flat monthly changes.
Washington, D.C. had the largest decrease of all 20 cities at 0.4% month over month.
The report's findings are in line with CoreLogic's HPI, released earlier this month, which shows that home prices, including distressed sales, dropped 0.1% in September compared to August, but were up 5.6% compared to September 2013.
Excluding distressed sales, prices were up 0.1%, month over month, and were up 5.2%, year over year.
It should be noted, however, that the two reports are based on different methodologies.
For more on the Case-Shiller HPI, click here.