S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index: Hits New Record High in August

Home prices continued to trend upwards in August as the benchmark 20-city index rose for a nineteenth consecutive month to a new all-time high. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index revealed seasonally adjusted home prices for the 20-city index saw a 0.4% increase month-over-month (MoM) and a 5.2% increase year-over-year (YoY). After adjusting for inflation, the MoM was reduced to -0.1% and the YoY was -0.2%.

SP Case-Shiller Home Price Index 20-city composite

The benchmark 10-city index rose for a nineteenth consecutive month to a new all-time high in August. The seasonally adjusted home prices for the 10-city index saw a 0.3% MoM, and a 6.0% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM dropped to -0.2% and YoY dropped to 0.6%.

SP Case-Shiller Home Price Index 10-city composite

The benchmark national index rose for a nineteenth consecutive month to a new all-time high in August. The seasonally adjusted home prices for the national index saw a 0.3% increase MoM, and a 4.2% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM fell to -0.2% and YoY fell to -1.1%.

SP Case-Shiller Home Price Index national composite

Here is the analysis from today's Standard & Poor's press release:

ANALYSIS

“Home price growth is beginning to show signs of strain, recording the slowest annual gain since mortgage rates peaked in 2023,” says Brian D. Luke, CFA, Head of Commodities, Real & Digital Assets. “As students went back to school, home price shoppers appeared less willing to push the index higher than in the summer months. Prices continue to decelerate for the past six months, pushing appreciation rates below their long-run average of 4.8%. After smoothing for seasonality in the data, home prices continued to reach all-time highs, for the 15th month in a row.

“Regionally, all markets continue to remain positive, barely,” Luke continued. “Denver posted the slowest annual gain of all markets this year, dropping below Portland for the first time since the spring. The Northeast remains the best performing region, with the strongest gains for over a year. Currently, only New York, Las Vegas, and Chicago markets are at an all-time high. Comparing average gains of traditional red and blue states highlight a slight advantage for home price markets of blue states. With stronger gains in the Northeast and West than the South, blue states have outperformed red states dating back to July 2023.”