Annual home prices up 19.5 percent in September

Pandemic-era house price growth in the United States galloped to the fastest pace ever recorded in the summer, but this pace slowed a little in the latest report. In September, the CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City House Price Index rose three times faster than it did in 2020, but its exceptional 19% annual growth rate is one percentage point slower than the record-setting July pace.

House price appreciation is unsustainable at this rate. Over the last year, average hourly wages in the U.S. increased by less than 5%; if house price growth were to routinely increase four times faster than wages, then housing affordability would become an issue for a larger number of Americans.

The most recent report from Zillow indicates that house price acceleration continued to slow in October, and the number of days that listed homes were available for sale inched higher.