WRE NEWS
Two new data reports have affirmed home price acceleration is continuing to slow down.
The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller US National Home Price NSA Index reported a 1.7% annual gain for July, down from a 1.9% rise in June for the slowest acceleration in two years. The 10-City Composite increased 2.3%, down from a 2.7% rise in the previous month, while the 20-City Composite posted a year-over-year gain of 1.8%, down from a 2.2% increase in the previous month.
The pre-seasonally adjusted US National Index saw a slight downward trend, falling 0.2%. Both the 10-City Composite and 20-City Composite Indices posted drops of 0.3%, respectively. After the seasonal adjustment, the US National Index posted a decrease of 0.1% while both the 10-City Composite and 20-City Composite Indices posted drops of 0.1%, respectively.
New York City again reported the highest annual gain among the 20 cities with a 6.4% increase in July, followed by Chicago and Cleveland with annual increases of 6.2% and 4.5%, respectively. Tampa recorded the lowest return with a 2.8% decline.
“July’s results reinforce that the housing market has downshifted to a much slower gear,” said Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables and Commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “National home prices rose just 1.7% year-over-year, down from June’s 1.9% pace and a far cry from the double-digit gains of two years ago. In fact, this is one of the weakest annual price increases in the past decade – and notably, it’s below the 2.7% rise in consumer prices over the same period. In other words, US home values have essentially stagnated after inflation, marking the third straight month of real housing wealth decline for homeowners. This reversal is striking: during the pandemic boom, home prices were climbing far faster than inflation, rapidly boosting homeowners’ real equity. Now, the situation has flipped – over the last year, owning a home yielded a modest nominal gain, but an inflation-adjusted loss.”
Godec added, “What’s keeping price growth barely in positive territory at all is the rebound we saw earlier in 2025 offsetting a soft patch in late 2024. National home prices edged down slightly last autumn and then crept back up in the first half of this year. The net result is that July’s index level is only about 1.7% higher than a year ago. Essentially, the market experienced a minor dip and recovery within a 12-month span, leaving us with little overall appreciation. This kind of volatile plateau stands in stark contrast to the roaring price surges of 2021, and it underscores just how decisively the market’s momentum has cooled.”
Separately, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported a 0.1% month-over-month dip in July’s home prices, along with a 2.3% year-over-year increase.
For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly home price changes ranged from -a 1.2% drop in the Middle Atlantic division to a 0.3% in the East North Central division. The 12-month changes were all positive, ranging from a 0.2% uptick in the Pacific division to a vibrant 5.1% increase in the Middle Atlantic division.