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U.S. home sale price growth remains stable three months into the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, new home sales hit its highest level in more than 13.5 years in July.
Standard & Poor’s said Tuesday that its S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index posted a 4.3% annual gain in June, unchanged from May. The 20-City Composite posted a 3.5% annual gain, down from 3.6% in the previous month — missing estimates of 3.6% compiled by Bloomberg. For the fourth straight month, transaction records for Wayne County, Mich., were unavailable due to the COVID-19 lockdown so it was not included in the results.
Separately, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, new home sales, a leading indicator of the health of the market, rose 13.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 901,000 units last month — the highest level since December 2006.
“After 10 years of very subdued housing activity by every metric except for home prices we are finally seeing new home sales... really starting to come to market,” Brad Dillman, Cortland chief economist, told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.
Read more: Buying a house: What you need to know about home ownership
“Housing prices were stable in June,” said Craig J. Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a press statement. “June’s gains were quite broad-based. Prices increased in all 19 cities for which we have data, accelerating in five of them.”
Phoenix remained the top city for the 13th consecutive month, posting a 9% annual gain for June. Seattle and Tampa followed, reporting a 6.5% and 5.9% gain, respectively. “As has been the case for the last several months, prices were particularly strong in the Southeast and West, and comparatively weak in the Midwest and (especially) Northeast,” Lazzara said.
“More data will be required to understand whether the market resumes its previous path of accelerating prices, continues to decelerate, or remains stable,” Lazzara said. “That said, it’s important to bear in mind that deceleration is quite different from an environment in which prices actually fall.”
“The June Case-Shiller numbers show the housing market continues to withstand the pandemic-driven blows that have caused so many other facets of the economy to suffer,” said Zillow Economist Matthew Speakman, in a statement. “Mortgage rates and for-sale inventory are each plumbing new lows, ratcheting up competition for the few homes on the market. That’s placed consistent upward pressure on home prices, a trend that has held through the summer.”