Home Prices Continue to Decline in September

Home prices declined for the third straight month in September as the housing market continues to cool. In September, all 20 metro areas experienced negative home price appreciation.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, reported by S&P Dow Jones Indices, fell at a seasonally adjusted annual growth rate of 8.7% in September, following a 6.4% decline in July and a 10.4% decrease in August. After a decade of growth, home prices started to decline in July, driven by elevated interest rates and high construction costs. The July decline marked the first decline since February 2012, and the September decline marks the third consecutive monthly decline. Nonetheless, national home prices are now 62.4% higher than their last peak during the housing boom in March 2006.

On a year-over-year basis, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index posted a 10.6% annual gain in September, after a 12.9% increase in August. Year-over-year home price appreciation slowed for the sixth consecutive month.

Meanwhile, the Home Price Index, released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.9% in September, following the previous two months’ decreases. On a year-over-year basis, the FHFA Home Price NSA Index rose by 11.0% in September, following a 12.0% increase in August. The FHFA thus confirmed the slowdown in home price appreciation.

In addition to tracking national home price changes, S&P CoreLogic reported home price indexes across 20 metro areas in September. All 20 metro areas reported negative home price appreciation. Their annual growth rates ranged from -23.2% to -3.7% in September. San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Phoenix experienced the most monthly declines in home prices. San Francisco declined 23.2%, while Las Vegas and Phoenix declined 22.7% and 22.3%, respectively.

The scatter plot below lists the 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas’ annual growth rates in August and in September 2022. The X-axis presents the annual growth rates in August; the Y-axis presents the annual growth rates in September.  Compared to last month, home prices declined faster in September in the following 12 metro areas: Phoenix, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Charlotte, Las Vegas, New York, Cleveland, and Dallas.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *