Home-Price Growth Is Slowing, But Buyers Are Still Upping Their Budgets

The Case-Shiller national index report showed a 19.7% annual gain in home prices for the month of September, the fourth-largest increase in the report’s 34-year history, according to Realtor.com. Though prices are still rising, fewer cities across the U.S. are tracking larger gains toward the end of 2021 as experts look toward long-awaited deceleration in the coming year.

Market appreciation peaked in July and slowed in the final four months of 2021, but many regions are still expecting substantial growth ahead. Experts may be celebrating a downturn in price growth, but buyers across the country are still weighed down by record prices and a market with too little supply to keep up with escalating demand.

A separate home-price index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency recorded a 17.4% increase between October 2020 and October 2021 nationally. That report indicated that the Mountain region—Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico—saw the largest price gains.

“House price levels continue to rise, but the rapid pace is curtailing through October,” Will Doerner, supervisory economist in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics, said in the report. “The large market appreciations seen this spring peaked in July, and have been cooling this fall with annual trends slowing over the last four consecutive months.”

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