US house price growth ebbs in July

US house price growth edged past forecasts in July, led by gains in the so-called Mountain states, but slowed in annualised terms.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's seasonally-adjusted home price index edged higher by 0.2% month-on-month, taking the year-on-year rate of change to 6.4%.

That was down from an initial estimate of 6.5% for June, but ahead of economists' forecasts calling for a rise of 6.4%.

In comparison to a year ago, the fastest pace of house price growth was experienced in the Mountain states, which run from Montana, to the north, all the way through to Arizona and New Mexico in the South, where prices rose by 8.7%.

Separately, Standard&Poor's reported that in seasonally-adjusted terms, its CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20 city house price index advanced by 0.1% on the month in July, besting a consensus forecast for a dip of 0.2%.

Commenting on Case Shiller indices, David M. Blitzer, the Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said: "Rising homes prices are beginning to catch up with housing. Year-over-year gains and monthly seasonally adjusted increases both slowed in July for the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller National Index and the 10 and 20-City Composite indices. The slowing is widespread [...]

"Sales of existing single family homes have dropped each month for the last six months and are now at the level of July 2016. Housing starts rose in August due to strong gains in multifamily construction. The index of housing affordability has worsened substantially since the start of the year."