Home prices continued their torrid upward trajectory in September, rising 7 percent year-over-year according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index.
Phoenix, Seattle and San Diego saw the biggest annual price increases of the 20 metro areas tracked by the index. Prices rose 11.4 percent year-over-year in Phoenix, followed by Seattle which saw an 10.1 percent increase and San Diego, which saw a 9.5 percent increase. Every city tracked by the index reported annual price increases.
“Housing prices were notably — I am tempted to say ‘very’ — strong in September,” Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.
“The strength of the housing market was consistent nationally — all 19 cities for which we have September data rose, and all 19 gained more in the 12 months ended in September than they had done in the 12 months ended in August,” Lazzara added.
The last time national annual price acceleration was this high was May 2014, more six years ago, according to Lazzara.
‘This month’s increase may reflect a catch-up of COVID-depressed demand from earlier this year; it might also presage future strength, as COVID encourages potential buyers to move from urban apartments to suburban homes,” Lazzara said. “The next several months’ reports should help to shed light on this question.”
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index is “a composite of single-family home price indices that is calculated every month; the indices for the nine U.S. Census divisions are calculated using estimates of the aggregate value of single-family housing stock for the time period in question.”
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