U.S. home prices climbed at a solid pace in August as more home buyers competed for fewer available properties. The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.1% in August, after a 5% gain in July.
The Associated Press reports steady hiring, low mortgage rates and some early signs of rising pay have encouraged more Americans to buy homes. Sales of existing properties increased 3.2% in September from August, the National Association of Realtors says. Yet the number of homes for sale has fallen nearly 7% from a year ago, the NAR says. Just 2.04 million homes were for sale in September.
“Demand is high and enthusiasm for homeownership remains strong, especially among all-important young, minority and would-be first-time buyers,” says Svenja Gudell, chief economist at real estate data provider Zillow. “Still, the market can’t stay on this course forever, and continued inventory shortages are leading to intense competition, escalating prices and mounting buyer frustration, with the average home search over the past year taking more than four months.”
The Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. The index measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The August figures are the latest available.
Locally, closed homes sales in the nine-parish Capital Region were down 23.4% in August from the same month a year ago, mostly due to the historic August flooding, the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors says in a report released earlier this month.
While the number of closed sales shrunk in all three of the market’s biggest parishes, Livingston Parish—which was hit particularly hard by the flood—saw a dramatic drop. Closed sales there fell a whopping 34.3%, from 178 in August 2015 to 117 in August 2016. Closed sales in East Baton Rouge Parish were down 19.3%, while Ascension Parish saw a 20.6% decrease.
