U.S. home-price gains set another record, fueled by bidding wars

By Christine Maurus | Bloomberg

U.S. location prices erstwhile again jumped the astir successful much than 30 years.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller scale of spot values nationwide surged 18.6% successful June from a twelvemonth earlier, according to a connection connected Tuesday. That followed a 16.8% summation successful May and was the 13th consecutive period that terms gains accelerated.

June’s summation was the largest successful information going backmost to 1988 arsenic buyers, equipped with inexpensive mortgages, competed for a choky proviso of homes, fueling bidding wars crossed the country.

Read more: California’s lodging marketplace hits record-high terms contempt signs of leveling off

“The past respective months person been bonzer not lone successful the level of terms gains, but successful the consistency of gains crossed the country,” said Craig Lazzara, planetary caput of scale concern strategy astatine S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The spot successful the U.S. lodging marketplace is being driven successful portion by absorption to the Covid pandemic, arsenic imaginable buyers determination from municipality apartments to suburban homes.”

A measurement of prices successful 20 U.S. cities climbed 19.1%, beating the median estimation successful a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Related: How to triumph a bidding war: New homeowners stock their strategies

The unrelenting terms increases person made it hard for buyers to find properties they tin afford. Contracts to bargain antecedently owned homes successful the U.S. fell unexpectedly for a 2nd consecutive period successful July, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.

Among the 20 cities, Phoenix led the mode with a 29.3% gain. Following were San Diego, astatine 27.1% and Seattle, astatine 25%.

Separately Tuesday, a Federal Housing Finance Agency scale showed location prices nationwide roseate 17.4% successful the 2nd 4th from a twelvemonth earlier and 4.9% from the erstwhile 3 months. The measure, which uses acquisition information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has accrued for 40 consecutive quarters.