Home Price Index Reports Slowest Annual Increase Since 2012

According to the recently released S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index (NHPI) for December 2019, U.S. home price growth slowed throughout most of 2019. With some modest pick-up in price growth starting in September and continuing through the end of the year. The latest National and Composite indexes record price movements through December and provide a complete view of price change throughout 2019. For the year, the annual average price growth was 3.5%, the slowest annual gain since 2012. According to Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic said, “The drop-in mortgage rates during the past week has improved payment affordability and will bring prospective buyers into the market. If rates stay low into the spring, we expect sales volume to be the highest in 13 years, and annual home price growth to quicken.”