Driven by a lack of inventory, U.S. home prices continued to increase in April, rising 0.3% on an adjusted basis compared with March, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index.
The index’s 10-city and 20-city composites increased 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, compared with March.
Year-over-year, home prices were up 6.3%.
San Diego continued to report the highest annual gain among the 20 cities, with a 10.3% increase, followed by New York at 9.4% and Chicago at 8.7%.
Portland, Ore., once again held the lowest rank for the smallest year-over-year growth, with a 1.7% annual increase in April.
“For the second consecutive month, we’ve seen our National Index jump at least 1 percent over its previous all-time high,” says Brian D. Luke, head of commodities, real and digital assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “2024 is closely tracking the strong start observed last year, where March and April posted the largest rise seen prior to a slowdown in the summer and fall. Heading into summer, the market is at an all-time high, once again testing its resilience against the historically more active time of the year.
“Thirteen markets are currently at all-time highs and San Diego reigns supreme once again, topping annual returns for the last six months,” Luke says. “The Northeast is the best performing market for the previous nine months, with New York rising 9.4 percent, annually.
“Sustained outperformance of the Northeast market was last observed in 2011,” he adds. “For the decade that followed, the West and the South held the top posts for performance. It’s now been over a year since we’ve seen the top region come from the South or the West.
“Last month’s all-time high came with all 20 markets accelerating price gains,” Luke says. “This month, just over half of our markets are seeing prices accelerate on a monthly basis. At 6.3 percent annual gains, the index has decelerated from the start of the year, with only two markets rising on an annual basis.”
Photo: Kostiantyn Li