File photo shows a home for sale in Andover, Mass.Elise Amendola/The Associated Press
U.S. home prices rose modestly in June, pushed up by strong sales and a limited supply of available properties.
The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, increased 5.1 per cent in June compared with a year ago. That's down from a 5.3 per cent annual gain in May and is the slowest year-over-year pace since last August.
Home values are still soaring in the Northwest, but have slowed to more sustainable rates elsewhere. In Northeastern cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., they are rising at roughly the rate of inflation, and in Boston, less than 5 per cent.
Still, nationwide prices are increasing more quickly than incomes as buyers compete for the dwindling supply of available homes. That could stifle sales in the coming months.
Home prices in the Northwest continued to climb at a double-digit pace. They rose 12.6 per cent in Portland, 11 per cent in Seattle, and 9.2 per cent in Denver. Those three cities have topped the list of price gains for the past five months.
Cities in the Midwest were mixed. Home prices in Cleveland and Chicago rose 2.5 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively, while in Minneapolis they climbed 5.1 per cent, the same as the nationwide pace.
Southern cities saw stronger price gains. They rose 8.9 per cent in Dallas, 7.9 per cent in Tampa, and 5.8 per cent in Atlanta.
The 20-city price index plunged after the housing bubble started to burst in 2006, plummeting by more than a third before prices began to rise again in March 2012. In June, they were still 8.1 per cent below their peak level.
The Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. The index measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The June figures are the latest available.