- It’s a new normal in the housing market. Ever rising prices are being met by insatiable demand. Demand remains unimpeded by exceptionally low inventory as homebuyers enjoyed strong job growth and low mortgage rates, driving prices ever higher.
- Prospective homebuyer frustrations are sure to mount with another month of year-over-year increases in home prices as the Case-Shiller index rose 5.8% in June over last year.
- Seattle’s caffeinated home prices continued to blast upward, surpassing last month’s annual increase to set a 44-month high.
U.S. home prices rose yet again in June and were up 5.8% year-over-year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index released today. After May’s numbers showed a flattening out of year-over-growth in home prices, in June they picked up steam again from last year. But nothing seemed to be faze homebuyers, even short supply. Armed with low mortgage rates and a healthy job market, they continued to bid up homes across the biggest housing markets. Coupled with last week’s news that existing home sales inventory fell for the 26th consecutive month, there’s no indication that America’s starving housing markets will be fed, as buyers fight over scraps.
Nowhere was the homebuying market so unforgiving as in Seattle where double-digit annual growth combined with higher home prices in June. Prices were up 13.4% annually, hitting another year-over-year high since September 2013. In the other 20 markets that the Case-Shiller index tracks, western markets such as San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix also saw year-over-year price increases since May.
