US house price growth eases in January - S&P/Case-Shiler
US house price growth came in a little weaker than expected in January, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.
The 20-city index was up 3.6% year-on-year, slowing down from 4.1% growth the month before, missing expectations for a 4% increase and marking the slowest growth in more than six years.
Las Vegas, Phoenix and Minneapolis reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities. Las Vegas led the way with a 10.5% jump, followed by Phoenix with a 7.5% increase and Minneapolis with a 5.1% rise. Only one of the 20 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending January 2019 versus the year ending December 2018.
Meanwhile, the national home price NSA index covering all nine US census divisions was 4.3% higher in January, down from 4.6% in December 2018.
David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, pointed out that the last time the NSA index covering all nine US census divisions advanced this slowly was April 2015.
"In 16 of the 20 cities tracked, price gains were smaller in January 2019 than in January 2018. Only Phoenix saw any appreciable acceleration," he said. "Some cities where prices surged in 2017-2018 now face much smaller increases: in Seattle, annual price gains dropped from 12.8% to 4.1% from January 2018 to January 2019. San Francisco saw annual price increases shrink from 10.2% to 1.8% over the same time period."