It was much the same song when it came to home prices in August; they just keep going up and up and up.
According to a new report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the latest version of the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, house prices continued rising by nearly 20% in August compared to last year.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, which covers all nine Census divisions, showed a 19.8% annual gain in July, up from 19.7% in the previous month.
Among the 20 largest cities in the U.S., Phoenix, San Diego, and Tampa saw the highest annual increases in home prices. According to the report, home prices in Phoenix rose by 33.3% in one year, while home prices in San Diego saw an increase of 26.2%. Tampa saw a yearly increase of 25.9%.
"The U.S. housing market showed continuing strength in August 2021," said Craig Lazzara, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Investment Strategy at S&P DJI. “Every one of our city and composite indices stands at its all-time high, and year-over-year price growth continues to be very strong, although moderating somewhat from last month's levels.”
The FHFA home price index showed a nationwide yearly increase of 18.5% from August 2020 to August 2021.
"Annual house price gains remained extremely high in August but the pace of month-over-month gains continues to decelerate," said Lynn Fisher, FHFA’s Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics.
"This does not mean house prices are at risk of declining—far from it, they continue to climb at a double-digit pace in all regions—but it does suggest we may have seen the peak in annual gains for the time being," Fisher added.