US housing price growth accelerated late last year

S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller has released national home price index data for December 2024.

Accordingly, the national housing price index in the USA increased by 3.9 percent in December 2024 compared to the same month of the previous year.

The index, which showed that the increase in housing prices accelerated during this period, increased by 3.7 percent annually in November 2024.

The index for housing prices in 20 cities in the United States also increased by 4.5 percent in December 2024 compared to the same month of the previous year.

Market expectations were for the index to increase by 4.4 percent. The index had increased by 4.3 percent in November 2024.

Among the 20 cities in the index, New York saw the highest annual increase in housing prices. Housing prices in New York rose 7.2 percent annually during this period.

After New York, the cities where housing prices increased the most were Chicago (6.6 percent) and Boston (6.3 percent).

The only city where housing prices fell during the same period was Tampa, with a 1.1 percent decrease.

Brian Luke, Head of Commodities, Real and Digital Assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, stated in his assessment of the data that it has been 5 years since the Covid-19 pandemic affected the global economy, and that this process has led to a housing market that responds to unprecedented fluctuations, large-scale fiscal and monetary incentives, and changes in working methods and migration in places of residence.

Pointing out that national housing prices have increased by an average of 8.8 percent annually since the pandemic hit 2020, Luke said that this increase was led by the markets in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Arizona.

Luke noted that although the national housing price index continues to move above inflation, growth is below trend compared to the historical average of the index, and that the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index continues to emphasize the upward trend in housing prices nationally.