US home prices climbed again in July as inventory tightened

U.S. home prices rose again in July, pulled up by strong gains in cities such as Portland, Seattle and Denver.

The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released today, rose 5% in July from a year earlier after increasing 5.1% in June.

The Associated Press reports the latest report is further evidence that prices are being pushed higher by the limited inventory of homes on the market. That is hurting sales of both new and existing homes, despite buyer enthusiasm and historically low mortgage rates.

“With inventory still very tight, the pressure on home prices is all to the upside,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, writes in a research note.

As previously reported, average sales price of homes in the greater Baton Rouge housing market increased by 2.7% in June to $225,852, while the median sales price also rose, by 3.7% to $196,950. New housing listings were down 10.6% year-over-year in July.  

The Commerce Department reported on Monday that new home sales fell 7.6% in August. And the National Association of Realtors said last week that sales of existing homes slipped 0.9% in August. Inventory collapsed 10.1% from a year ago to 2.04 million homes.

The Associated Press has the full story.