Home price growth accelerated for fourth straight month
Home price growth accelerated in November 2019, for the fourth consecutive month.
Standard & Poor’s said Tuesday that its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index posted a 3.5% annual gain in November, up from 3.2% in October. The rate of home price increases started to increase in August after a 16-month slowdown. The 20-City Composite posted a 2.6% year-over-year increase — outpacing analysts’ estimates of 2.4%, according to Bloomberg. The 20-City Composite was up from 2.2% the previous month.
“With the month’s 3.5% increase in the national composite index, home prices are currently 59% above the trough reached in February 2012, and 15% above their pre-financial crisis peak,” said Craig J. Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a press statement. “November’s results were broad-based, with gains in every city in our 20-city composite.”
“Recent improvements in existing home sales data with sharp increases in median home prices indicate that upward pressure on home prices is re-building as improved demand draws down inventories,” Nomura said in a recent note, adding that “consumer demand, fostered by a low unemployment rate and steady income growth, will likely support upward pressure to home price appreciation without a meaningful rise in supply.”
Last week, the National Association of Realtors reported that median existing home price increased 7.8% to $274,500 in December from the same time a year earlier. Total housing inventory was down 8.5% last month from a year ago. Meanwhile, existing home sales rose 3.6% in December to 5.34 million from a month earlier.
“As was the case [in October], after a long period of decelerating price increases, the National, 10-city, and 20-city Composites all rose at a modestly faster rate in November than they had done in October,” said Lazzara. “This increase was broad-based, reflecting data in 15 of 20 cities. It is, of course, still too soon to say whether this marks an end to the deceleration or is a merely a pause in the longer-term trend.”
Phoenix, Yahoo Finance’s hottest housing market of 2019, topped the 20-City Composite for the sixth straight month, posting a 5.9% gain in November. Last year, home prices along with rents surged in the Valley of the Sun at a rate that outpaced the nation and other major markets. Charlotte and Tampa followed Phoenix in the 20-City Composite, reporting year-over-year gains of 5.2% and 5%, respectively.
Amanda Fung is an editor at Yahoo Finance.
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