The 10 city and 20 city composites each a slowdown with annual returns of 6.7% in July, falling from the previous month's 8.1% and 8% annual returns, respectively.
Nineteen of the 20 metropolitan area indices saw year on year returns worsen, despite continuing to post annual increases, ranging from 0.9% growth in Cleveland to 12.8% growth in Las Vegas, compared to July 2013.
Miami and San Francisco were the only other metro indexes that surpassed 10% year on year increases in home prices, posting gains of 11% and 10.3%, respectively.
On a month on month basis, just three of the 20 metropolitan areas posted a positive change in seasonally adjusted home prices, while three had no change and the remaining 14 dropped month over month.
Las Vegas, Dallas and Charlotte in North Carolina each had positive growth rates in seasonally adjusted home prices compared to June, ranging from 0.1% to 0.3% growth.
At the other end of the scale, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco saw the largest decreases month on month, ranging from growth rates of negative 1% to falls of 1.6%.
‘The broad based deceleration in home prices continued in the most recent data,’ said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones, but pointed out that despite the dropping growth rates, home prices continue to rise at two to three times the rate of inflation.
‘The slower pace of home price appreciation is consistent with most of the other housing data on housing starts and home sales. The rise in August new home sales, which are not covered by the S&P/Case-Shiller indices, is a welcome exception to recent trends,’ he explained.
Sales of new single family homes in August increased month on month and year on year, according to the most recent data released jointly by the US Census Bureau and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for new single family homes in August was 504,000, 18.0% above the revised July rate of 427,000, and 33.0% above the August 2013 estimate of 379,000.
Three of the four regions saw a rise in new home sales on a month on month basis, with the West representing the largest growth since July, posting a 50% increase to a rate of 153,000 units sold. The West's year on year increase of 84.3% from the 83,000 annualized new home sales rate in August 2013 was more than triple the annual growth of any other region.
The Northeast saw a large gain in new home sales month on month, with an August annual rate of 31,000 homes, a 29.2% increase from July. The region's year on year performance, however, fell 3.1% from the 32,000 unit sales rate the previous year.
The South's pace of 262,000 new homes sold in August represented a 27.2% increase from the 206,000 sold in August 2013, and a 7.8% month on month rise.
The annualized rate of 58,000 new homes sold in the Midwest matched the number of annualized units sold in the region during July 2014 and August 2013, creating no change for both the one month or one year periods.
Single family housing starts in August fell 2.4% month over month but rose 4.2% year on year, according to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The seasonally adjusted annual rate for single unit home starts in August was 643,000, compared to the revised July rate of 659,000 and the August 2013 rate of 617,000.
The Midwest posted the largest month on month and year on year declines, down 12.7% and 8.6%, respectively, to a rate of 96,000 single family housing starts in August. The West fell to an annualized pace of 137,000 single family housing starts, a decline of 8.1% month over month and 1.4% year over year.
The Northeast posted the greatest monthly gain of the four regions, up 16.7% from July to a rate of 56,000 starts, but down 1.8% from August 2013. The South gained a slight 0.6% from July, but the annualised rate of 354,000 single family housing starts in August represented a 12% year on year gain.
