U.S. home prices are still rising, and the pace of growth continues to slow, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index (not seasonally adjusted) for July that was released Tuesday. However, the July index ends a 15-month stretch of yearly month-over-month index declines. The year-over-year increase of 3.2% was 0.1 percentage points higher than the year-over-year June increase.

Some cities continue to see sharp increases, but these too are slowing down. Phoenix home prices are 5.8% higher than they were a year ago, while Las Vegas showed an increase of 4.7% and Charlotte increased by 4.6%. The only U.S. city to post a year-over-year decline was Seattle, where prices were 0.6% lower than in July of 2018.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the consensus economists’ estimate called for the 20-city average home price to rise by 2.1% year over year and 0.1% month over month.

In all U.S. cities included in the 20-city home price index, July house prices rose 0.1% month over month, with 17 of 20 posting non-seasonally adjusted month-over-month price increases. Only Los Angeles (down 0.3%), New York (down 0.1%) and Washington, D.C., (down 0.1%) posted declines.

Philip Murphy, managing director and global head of Index Governance at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said:

Year-over-year home prices continued to gain, but at ever more modest rates. Charlotte surpassed Tampa to join the top three cities, and Seattle may be turning around from its recent negative streak of YOY price changes, improving from -1.3% in June to -0.06% in July. …  Home price gains remained positive in low single digits in most cities, and other fundamentals indicate renewed housing demand.

Mortgage loan rates had dipped slightly to 3.72% Tuesday morning, according to Mortgage News Daily.

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