Home price increase heats up in August, but halts in large markets: S&P Case-Shiller

Housing prices are heating up again at the national level, but some of the largest cities are lagging behind. This may be due to already overheated prices in these cities, as well as new tax rules that limit the number of deductions that homeowners can take.

Prices rose 3.2% in August, up from the 3.1% gain in July, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. Prices in the country's 1

0 major cities rose 1.5%, down from the 1.6% gain in July and at the index's 20-city compound prices were 2% higher, unchanged from July's gain.

Seven of the top 20 cities reported higher price increases in the year ending August 2019 versus the year ending July 2019.

"A shift in regional leadership may be under the heading of the National Index," said Philip Murphy, CEO director and global head of index management at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Phoenix saw an increase in the YOY price change to 6.3% and retained its leading position."

However, Las Vegas fell from number two to number eight among the cities in the 20-City Composite, falling from a 4.7% annual gain in July to just 3.3% in August.

"When you look at how gradually house prices have gone up lately, the rise in prices is more like what we considered normal for many years. "said Janet Carpenter, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. "As demand stays strong and our local housing supply stays tight, I wouldn't be surprised to see this trend continue into the foreseeable future."

Three of the top four award winning cities were in the Southeast. Charlotte, Tampa and Atlanta all saw major price gains from the national average of 4.5%, 4.3% and 4.0%, respectively. Seattle saw a slight price increase annually (0.7%) after three consecutive months of negative annual price changes. San Francisco replaced it as the only city with a negative annual price reading (-0.1%).