S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller: US house costs up 5.2% in August

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. house costs posted a robust place in August — but one more signal that the American housing market stays valid despite economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-metropolis house tag index, released Tuesday, showed that house costs climbed 5.2% in August from a year earlier, accelerating from a 4.1% place in July. The place become once stronger than economists had anticipated.

Phoenix (up 9.9% from August 2019), Seattle (up 8.5%) and San Diego (7.6%) posted the glorious positive aspects. All 19 cities in the index recorded tag will enhance. The 20-metropolis index excluded costs from the Detroit metropolitan house index thanks to delays linked to pandemic at the recording put of job in Wayne County, which contains Detroit.

Helped by rock-bottom mortgage charges, the U.S. housing market has been a provide of energy as the U.S. economic system climbs serve from an April-June freefall attributable to the pandemic and the measures taken to private it.

“The provision of for-sale properties, already extremely tight, has simplest become extra constrained in most modern months, and historically low mortgage charges proceed to assist many traders to enter the market,” Matthew Speakman, economist at the right property company Zillow, stated in a analysis show. “This heightened opponents for the few properties on the market has placed consistent, company stress on house costs for months now, and there are few indicators that this could relent any time soon.″

The National Association of Realtors reported closing week that gross sales of existing shot up 9.4% in September and that the median promoting tag of a house climbed 15% from a year earlier to $311,800. And the Commerce Department reported that house constructing rose 1.9% in September on a surge in constructing of single-household properties.