Case-Shiller shows dip in home prices, breaking 2024 uptrend
Case-Shiller shows dip in home prices, breaking 2024 uptrend
Housing price increases haven’t shown many signs of slowing — until now, perhaps.
July saw an all-time high in U.S. home prices, but new numbers from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index reveal a slight dip from July to August. Now, home prices are still up 4.2% year over year, but the rate of increase is slowing.
Ebbing price growth might seem novel, but it’s not surprising. Mark Eppli, director of the real estate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, identified three main reasons price hikes are cooling. One is the supply of homes for sale.
“For the first time, we’ve really seen them sustainably growing, which means there’ll be a little push down in sale prices,” Eppli said.
Second, mortgage rates have gone up, which tends to bring selling prices down. And lastly, both presidential candidates are promising help for homebuyers, Eppli said. “If you’re a homebuyer, why not wait for that?”
The people who already own homes might not be excited about the changing price trend, but “the slowing of house price appreciation is actually a good thing,” said Timothy Savage, who teaches finance in New York University’s real estate program.
He said the price of housing is a major slice of the inflation pie, and the cooling off means the Federal Reserve’s attempt to curb inflation might be working. Plus, “this may help to address the issue of individuals getting into housing in the first place,” Savage said.
That would be welcome news in Chicago, which had the second-highest house price gains among major U.S. cities.
“We don’t have enough homes for sale, and we have a good amount of buyers looking to buy in Chicago,” said Erika Villegas, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors. “We don’t have the amount of listings that we would love to have to be able to meet the demand.”
Villegas hopes that declining interest rates will help more buyers in her market find homes soon. Already, she said, she’s seen a sales uptick in the past couple of months.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
