Home prices in South Florida increased 5.3% in May from a year ago, a sign that recent gains are moderating, a new report shows.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday offers a more measured assessment of prices in the region than the ones issued by local Realtor boards on Monday.
The Realtor figures for June indicate that median prices in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties are steadily rising and approaching peak levels from a decade ago.
But the Case-Shiller data point to smaller annual price growth across the tri-county region in the past five months.
Case-Shiller, which tracks prices in 20 major metropolitan areas nationwide, is one of the most respected housing barometers. Unlike Realtor boards, the index measures the price of the same house over time. However, it trails the Realtor data by one month.
Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida, said Case-Shiller and the Realtor numbers offer different measures of the same trend in Florida.
"I don't see them as being all that inconsistent," he said. "We had double-digit price appreciation [in recent years] and that has definitely stopped. That's really the bottom line."
Among the 20 metros, Seattle had the highest increase at 13.3%, according to the index. Portland, Ore., was second at 8.9%. The national average was 5.7%.
"Home prices continue to climb and outpace both inflation and wages," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee for S&P, said in a statement. "Housing is not repeating the bubble period of 2000-2006."
Blitzer said price increases vary across the nation, unlike the earlier bubble, when higher prices were "almost universal." He also pointed to fewer sales and a declining supply of homes as reasons why the market today is in better shape than a decade ago.
Slower price growth is welcome in South Florida because higher values are shutting first-time buyers and others out of the market.
Jim Flood, general manager for Supreme Lending in Fort Lauderdale, said young professionals tend to gravitate more toward Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa because those are among the most affordable markets in Florida.
"Our challenge is finding something for the first-time homebuyer," Flood said. "There are pockets [of affordability], but it would just make our market stronger if we could find more of those places."
