Single-Family Home Prices Can’t Stop Breaking Records

Home prices have been rising faster than ever. 

For the third month in a row, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index had the biggest year-over-year increase on record, rising 18.6% in the 12 months through June. As the chart below shows, the monthly reading, which has tracked prices of single-family homes across the country since 1987, has never had such steep gains.

While more recent data suggests a bit of calm has returned to the market, the index highlights how rapidly home prices have been increasing lately as buyers, whose purchasing power has been bolstered by low interest rates, have fiercely competed for the few homes for sale on the market. The Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index, also released Tuesday, showed prices in June were 18.8% above the year before and were 52.3% above their April 2007 peak at the height of the housing bubble. 

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