Home prices rose 5.6% in the second quarter from a year earlier, extending gains that have cut into affordability for many buyers.
Prices climbed 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous three months, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in a report Wednesday. In June, prices climbed 0.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from May. The average estimate of 21 economists was for a 0.3% gain.
"Although the appreciation rate for the second quarter was of similar magnitude to what we've been seeing for several years now, a close look at the month-over-month price changes during the quarter reveals a potentially significant market shift," Andrew Leventis, the Washington-based agency's supervisory economist, said in a statement.
The increase was just 0.2% in each of the three months, a more-modest pace of appreciation that "most likely reflects accumulated pressures from significantly reduced home affordability."
The demand for housing has outstripped supply in the U.S., pushing prices up. A total of 5.5 million homes, including condominiums and single-family houses, changed hands in the second quarter, up 4.2% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. The transactions are from a shrinking pool of available properties, as 2.12 million homes were available for sale at the end of the quarter, down 5.8%, the group said. Prices in the second quarter rose from a year earlier in every state except Vermont, the FHFA said.
The FHFA index measures transactions for single-family properties financed with mortgages owned or securitized by government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It doesn’t provide prices. The national median price of an existing single-family home rose to $240,700 in the second quarter, up 4.9% from a year earlier, Realtors data show.
