Prices Are Clearly Increasing at a Slower Rate, Housing Market Cools From April’s Peak: Massachusetts MABA HomeBuyers RealEsate

The numbers: The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller twenty city house price index rise slowed to eighteen point six percent year over year in June down from twenty point five percent in the previous month. In the month of June, the twenty city index rose a seasonally adjusted zero point four percent, down from one point three percent in May. The rate of price rises has sharply slowed since reaching a peak of twenty one point two percent in April. A broader measure of home prices, the national index, rose a seasonally adjusted zero point three percent in June from May. June’s monthly increase was the lowest in two years. A separate report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed a zero point one percent monthly gain from May to June. And over the last year, the FHFA index was up seventeen point seven percent.

What the producers of the report said: “Prices are clearly increasing at a slower rate,” Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, but “it’s important to bear in mind that deceleration and decline are two entirely different things, and that prices are still rising at a robust clip.” Lazzara said that the growth rate in June was at or above the ninety fifth percentile of how prices have risen in the past. S&P stressed that prices were still rising at a robust clip. Over the first half of the year, prices have grown ten point six percent nationally. In the last thirty five years, that rate of growth was achieved only over four years, the company said.

 At a national level, “markets in the West, including Seattle, California coastal metros, Portland and Denver, saw most notable waning of home prices growth in June,” Selma Hepp, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic, said in a statement. CoreLogic expects home prices to continue to slow, but not decline in most markets, over the next year.

What outside economists said: “Home prices came in well below expectations in June,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note. “While a move in the right direction, year-on-year gains remain elevated. Higher mortgage rates, still-low supply and elevated prices continue to be constraints for buyers,” she added. “Prices should continue to ease on weaker demand and gradually easing supply going forward.”

Market reaction: Stocks DJIA, -0.69% SPX, -0.87%  are set to open higher on Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.124% slipped slightly.

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First Time Home Buying in Massachusetts

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