US home-price growth slowed in June

HOME-PRICE growth in the US decelerated in June as the sales slowdown gripped the market.

A national measure of prices rose 18 per cent year-over-year, smaller than the 19.9 per cent climb in May, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed on Tuesday (Aug 30).

The housing market has quickly slowed from its pandemic-era frenzy, with the Case-Shiller figures reflecting the start of the pullback that began to pick up pace in June. Mortgage rates that nearly doubled this year have sidelined buyers, leading sales to drop throughout the US. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists said Tuesday in a note that price growth will likely slow sharply over the coming quarters.

“The deceleration in US housing prices that we began to observe several months ago continued in June,” said Craig Lazzara, a managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “It’s important to bear in mind that deceleration and decline are 2 entirely different things, and that prices are still rising at a robust clip.”

The crazy bidding wars of the recent past are receding as sellers become more flexible: 92 per cent of owners who sold their homes in the past year accepted some buyer-friendly terms, according to a new report from Realtor.com.

A measure of prices in 20 US cities increased 18.6 per cent in June, down from the 20.5 per cent gain in May. Tampa, Miami and Dallas posted the highest gains.

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The market slowdown has caused some big investors to pull back. Home Partners of America, the single-family landlord owned by Blackstone, will stop buying homes in 38 US cities. The company cited home-price appreciation, local regulations and market demand as some factors in figuring out where it would back away.

“We and Home Partners remain fully committed to expanding access to homeownership and continue to actively purchase homes on behalf of our residents in more than 20 of the highest growth markets in the US,” a Blackstone spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are pausing in markets that represent less than 5 per cent of our recent activity.”

The index, which covers more than 27 years of data, is an important measure of the health of the housing market in part because of its breadth of measurements around the country. BLOOMBERG