USA house prices rise 0.6% in July, Case-Shiller index shows

These results were gathered by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, which climbed 5 percent in July from previous year.

The median estimate of 30 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 5.2 percent year-over-year gain.

“To many observers, the housing market is sending mixed messages right now”.

Many Eastern and Midwestern cities witnesses much smaller price gains. “Brokers said they are seeing increased cautiousness from buyers to buy houses given the rise in prices, and sellers are starting to respond by lowering their expectations”.

As for that long term trend line…we’re still lagging it by 22.1% and we may never catch up to it unless the local economy really takes off. In particular the June release, which July is obviously being compare against, was substantially revised upward this month. Both the 10-City and 20-City Composite posted 0.6 percent gains.

He noted that most of the strength has been in western states.

Month-over-MonthBefore seasonal adjustment, the National Index posted a gain of 0.7% month-over-month in July.

There is an unfortunate realization coming to light, as it appears that the housing sector may not be thriving due to real demand, but rather demand is increasing as a result of a slowdown of prices relative to the prior year.

Over time the divide between California cities and a few of their Rust Belt counterparts has become even more apparent. Higher home prices also bring down the number of those Americans who owe more than their homes’ worth on their mortgages, a condition which is typically known as being “under water”. In Detroit they have grown just 3% since then, and in Cleveland just 10%, according to Case-Shiller.

In addition, S&P Dow Jones Indices Publisher’s index committee chairman David Blitzer says, “Prices of existing homes and housing overall are seeing strong growth and contributing to recent solid growth for the economy”. Both cities saw greater than 10 percent increases. June’s reading of the 20-city index was revised 20 basis points lower and represents the third straight month of 20-basis-point downward revisions.

“Buyers are anxious about too-high prices and are more cautious about making offers”, said Karen Krupsaw, vice president of real-estate operations at Redfin, a real-estate brokerage.