US annual house-price inflation slows to two-year low
Annual house-price inflation in the States eased to its slowest pace in two years in September, according to S&P/Case-Shiller data released on Tuesday.
Prices of single-family homes across the nation rose by 4.8% from a year earlier on a seasonally-adjusted basis, down from the 5.1% growth seen in August.
Prices across the 20 major US cities included in the survey were higher by 4.9% year-on-year, slowing from a 5.6% rate in August but slightly ahead of the 4.8% growth pencilled in by analysts.
Nevertheless, this was still the ninth consecutive monthly slowdown in the 20-city index and the lowest rate of annual growth since October 2012.
What's more, the national index of house prices declined 0.1% over September on an unadjusted basis, the first month-on-month fall since November 2013. After seasonal adjustments, the US index was up 0.7% over the month while the 20-city index increased by 0.3%.
“The overall trend in home price increases continues to slow down,” says David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Analyst Blerina Uruçi from Barclays said the slowdown during 2014 has been broadly in line with her outlook.
"This deceleration comes after prices rose consistently for much of the previous two years. The slowing of the pace of home-price inflation has been more pronounced than we had expected at the start of 2014 and seems set to undershoot our forecast for a 7-8% rise in 2014," Uruçi said.