U.S. home prices continued to rise in June, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, but the increase fell short of analyst estimates. (Tweet this)
The 20-city index rose 5 percent year-over-year in June. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected the index to increase to 5.1 percent. In May, the index increased 4.4 percent. The National Price index rose 4.5 percent in June.
Denver, San Francisco, and Dallas saw the biggest gains with price increases of 10.2 percent, 9.5 percent, and 8.2 percent, respectively. Denver is the only city with a double digit increase although Phoenix and Detroit had the longest streaks of year-over-year increases.
Eleven cities reported greater price increases in the year ending June 2015 than in the previous period.
"The price gains have been consistent as the unemployment rate declined with steady inflation and an unchanged Fed policy," David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.
He said that housing starts and sales data have pointed to a stronger housing sector to support the economy. However, he said, a Fed rate increase and market volatility could hurt the sector.
"However, if the Fed were to quickly follow that initial move with one or two more rate increases, housing and home prices might suffer. A stock market correction is unlikely to do much damage to the housing market; a full blown bear market dropping more than 20 percent would present some difficulties for housing and for other economic sectors."
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Source: S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
Correction: The story has been updated to reflect that the 20-city index was up by 5 percent.