Home price gains in the Twin Cities metro have outpaced the national average for much of the year, but those gains have cooled in recent months.
During June the
While the index for the Twin Cities reached a new high during June, prices increases have moderated, providing relief to those who worried the metro is on the verge of a housing bubble or that they're being priced out of the market.
"Home price gains continue to trend down, but may be leveling off to a sustainable level," Philip Murphy, managing director and global head of index governance at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.
The Case-Shiller index differs from most price measures in that it tracks repeat sales of the same homes over time rather than the price of all sales during a particular period.
Price gains in the Twin Cities, according to the index, have moderated since last fall and winter when the annual increase during September was 6% and 5.1% in January. From April to May the index increased 1.9%, but only 1.1% gain from May to June.
Nationwide the biggest gains were in cities that saw prices plummet the most post-recession. That includes Phoenix, Las Vegas and Tampa, which posted the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 largest cities. In June, Phoenix led the way with a 5.8% year-over-year increase, followed by Las Vegas (5.5%) and Tampa (4.7%).
Last month the Minneapolis Area Realtors trader group said the median price of all sales that closed during July was $283,700, 5.9% higher than last year. By another measure, which eliminates some of the statistical noise that comes with tracking the price of all closings during a particular period, the average price per-square-foot of all sales that closed during the month increased 3.1%.
Economists expect more moderate home price appreciation should hold steady as we enter the second half of 2019.
Zillow economist Matthew Speakman said in a news release that while prices are still climbing, the rate of annual appreciation appears to have leveled off near its long-term average, after consistently falling from a high point reached in the spring of last year.
He said that housing demand remains strong as buyers are encouraged by rising wages and mortgage rates that just keep falling amid growing economic uncertainty.
"Would-be buyers stand with preapproved mortgages in hand," he said. "However, they've become unwilling to pay escalating prices for the relatively low inventory of homes that are on the market and instead are making sellers wait and even drop list prices."
