The Balance Today: News You Need To Know on Aug. 30, 2022

Interested in buying a house? If you are, you might be in luck—while home prices continued to increase in June, they’ve slowed significantly from May, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index released this morning. Home prices were up 18% in June from last year, a drop from May’s 19.9% annual increase.

Unfortunately for Tampa, Miami, and Dallas buyers, their cities have seen the biggest increases in home prices—Tampa leads the way with a 35% jump.

Home Prices Are Still High but Slowing

Home prices, while still rising and well above where they were in June 2021, have been slowing amid soaring mortgage rates over the past year thanks to inflation-busting interest-rate hikes. And while average mortgage rates are lower than they were in June, they’ve started to creep upward again. With the central bank likely to hike rates again in September, higher rates could be in our future. The upside? It might cause home price growth to slow even further.

Job Market Brings Some Good News

And in the labor market, if you want a job, employers are still hiring. Job openings held steady in July, with 11.2 million openings available, according to the Department of Labor's monthly job openings and labor turnover survey (JOLTS). In more good news, layoffs were little changed last month, showing that the job market is still going strong.

The Federal Reserve often looks to the labor market as a temperature check of the strength of the U.S. economy. If the jobs market is still going strong, then the Fed will likely conclude that the economy can withstand the pressure of rising interest rates and, in theory, fend off a recession. 

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