Home prices continued to trend upwards in December as the benchmark national index rose for a 23rd consecutive month to a 19th straight record high. The seasonally adjusted home prices for the national index saw a 0.5% increase MoM, and a 4.0% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM fell to 0.2% and YoY fell to -0.8%.
The S&P Case-Shiller benchmark 20-City composite aims to measure the value of residential real estate in the following 20 major U.S. cities: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington D.C. The benchmark 20-city index rose for an 11th consecutive month to an 11th straight record high in December. The seasonally adjusted home prices for the 20-city index saw a 0.5% MoM, and a 4.5% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM was reduced to 0.2% and YoY was reduced to -0.3%.
The S&P Case-Shiller benchmark 10-City composite, a subset of the 20-city index, aims to measure the change in value of residential real estate in the following 10 major U.S. cities: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. The benchmark 10-city index rose for a 23rd consecutive month to an 18th straight record high in December. The seasonally adjusted home prices for the 10-city index saw a 0.5% MoM, and a 5.1% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM dropped to 0.2% and YoY dropped to 0.3%.
Here is the analysis from today's Standard & Poor's press release:
ANALYSIS
“It has been five years since the Covid-19 outbreak took hold of the global economy, sparking unprecedented volatility, massive fiscal and monetary stimulus, and a housing market that responded to national migratory changes in how we work and where we live,” says Brian D. Luke, CFA, Head of Commodities, Real & Digital Assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “National home prices have risen by 8.8% annually since 2020, led by markets in Florida, North Carolina, Southern California, and Arizona. While our National Index continues to trend above inflation, we are a few years removed from peak home price appreciation of 18.9% observed in 2021 and are seeing below-trend growth over the history of the index.
“Home prices stalled during the second half of the year with markets in the West dropping the fastest. San Francisco, the worst performing market since 2020, dropped 4.5% during the last six months of the year, followed by Seattle with a 3.0% decline. San Francisco is now 11.0% lower than its post pandemic peak reached in May 2022. Previous strongholds like San Diego and Tampa experienced declines of 2.9% and 2.7%, respectively, during the second half of the year. After accounting for seasonal adjustments, our National Index pushed forward to achieve a 19th consecutive all-time high,” Luke continued. “The longest such streak occurred for over 12-years, notching 153 consecutive all-time highs from July 1993 to March 2006.
“The Northeast continues to lead all regions with above-trend growth, led by New York for the eighth consecutive time. Boston reached an all-time high, the only market to do so for the period ended December 2024.
“The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index continues to highlight the upward trend of home prices nationally,” Luke concluded. “Through this recent market cycle, the ability of Americans to grow wealth by participating in the upside of the U.S. housing market, particularly if done through a leveraged position by securing a mortgage, has proven to be historically beneficial.”
