U.S. home prices increased 0.3% on an adjusted basis in June compared with May and were up 6.2% compared with June 2017, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index.
The 10-city and 20-city composites both posted 0.1% month-over-month increases.
Year-over-year, the 10-city composite increased 6.0% while the 20-city composite increased 6.3%.
On an unadjusted basis, home prices increased 0.8% in June compared with May. The 10-city composite saw an increase of 0.4% while the 20-city composite saw an increase of 0.5%, month-over-month.
Las Vegas, Seattle and San Francisco continued to report the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities.
In June, Las Vegas led the way with a 13.0% year-over-year price increase, followed by Seattle with a 12.8% increase and San Francisco with a 10.7% increase.
“Home prices continue to rise across the U.S.” says David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement. “However, even as home prices keep climbing, we are seeing signs that growth is easing in the housing market.
“Sales of both new and existing-homes are roughly flat over the last six months amidst news stories of an increase in the number of homes for sale in some markets,” he says. “Rising mortgage rates – 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose from four percent to 4.5 percent since January – and the rise in home prices are affecting housing affordability.”
Regionally, the West continued to see the sharpest rise in home prices, with Las Vegas displacing Seattle as the market with the fastest price increase.
“Population and employment growth often drive homes prices,” Blitzer says. “Las Vegas is among the fastest growing U.S. cities based on both employment and population, with its unemployment rate dropping below the national average in the last year. The Northeast and Midwest are seeing smaller home price increases. Washington D.C., Chicago and New York City showed the three slowest annual price gains among the 20 cities covered.”