December’s S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index shows that home prices are continuing to ascend — December 2017’s national index comes in at 196.23, a 6.3 percent year-over-year and a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent month-over-month increase.
S&P Dow Jones Indices managing director and chairman of the index committee David M. Blitzer says the increase in home prices matched with the declines in existing-home sales and the flattening of pending home sales shows that housing recovery may be starting to slow.
Monthly changes using seasonally adjusted (SA) and nonseasonally adjusted (NSA) data. Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices and CoreLogic
“Within the last few months, there are beginning to be some signs that gains in housing may be leveling off,” Blitzer said in a statement. “Sales of existing homes fell in December and January after seasonal adjustment and are now as low as any month in 2017.”
“Pending sales of existing homes are roughly flat over the last several months. New home sales appear to be following the same trend as existing home sales,” he added. “While the price increases do not suggest any weakening of demand, mortgage rates rose from 4 percent to 4.4 percent since the start of the year.”
“It is too early to tell if the housing recovery is slowing. If it is, some moderation in price gains could be seen later this year.”
10-City and 20-City composite
The 10-City and 20-City composite boasted 0.2 percent year-over-year gains, and the cities of Seattle, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; and San Francisco, California; led the way. Seattle reported a 12.7 percent year-over-year price increase, followed by Las Vegas with an 11.1 percent increase.
San Francisco shored up the end of the pack with a 9.2 percent increase.
The 10-City and 20-City composites both reported 0.6 seasonally adjusted month-over-month increases, and no city reported a negative monthly price change.
About S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index is a composite of single-family home price indices that is calculated every month; the indices for the nine U.S. Census divisions are calculated using estimates of the aggregate value of single-family housing stock for the time period in question.
The nine divisions are:
- New England
- Middle Atlantic
- East North Central
- West North Central
- South Atlantic
- East South Central
- West South Central
- Mountain
- Pacific
CoreLogic serves as the calculation agent for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index.