Home price growth eases again, Case-Shiller reports

Bloomberg News/Landov

The numbers: The S&P/Case-Shiller national index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% and was up 6.4% for the year in May. The 20-city index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% and was up 6.5% compared with a year ago.

What happened: Home price gains are decelerating — but they’re still strong and are running well ahead of wage gains and inflation. In the three-month period ending in May, which is what Case-Shiller reported on Tuesday, three cities had annual price appreciation in double-digit percentages: Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle. No cities had monthly declines, although prices in New York, which has recently been the housing market’s weakest link, were flat.

Big picture: The slowdowns are modest — last month, the 20-city index was up 6.7% for the year, and the national index was up 6.4% — and may even signal a long-awaited soft landing for an overheated housing market. In May, only seven of the 20 cities reported acceleration — that is, stronger annual price gains than those registered in April.

There are other signs that the sharply skewed supply-demand dynamic that’s pushed prices higher may be weakening. In June, the National Association of Realtors reported that inventory was just a bit higher than a year ago, for the first time in three years. That may have helped boost June home-purchase-contract signings.

Metro	Monthly change	12-month change
Atlanta	1.0%	5.6%
Boston	0.8%	7.0%
Charlotte	0.8%	6.0%
Chicago	1.3%	3.3%
Cleveland	1.4%	5.0%
Dallas	0.6%	5.6%
Denver	0.8%	8.5%
Detroit	0.8%	7.1%
Las Vegas	1.3%	12.6%
Los Angeles	0.5%	7.6%
Miami	0.8%	5.0%
Minneapolis	1.1%	6.4%
New York	0.0%	4.2%
Phoenix	1.1%	7.3%
Portland	1.2%	5.9%
San Diego	0.6%	7.3%
San Francisco	1.1%	10.9%
Seattle	2.2%	13.6%
Tampa	0.5%	6.5%
Washington	0.6%	3.1%

What they’re saying: Reflecting on the slight rebound in pending home sales in June, Pantheon Macro’s Ian Shepherdson said this Monday: “A very modest uptick; the trend is flat.”