Home prices have been cooling off for a few years now. Even though they continued to increase, they did so at an ever-slowing pace. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices tracks home prices and, according to their most recent measure, that trend has continued. Nicholas Godec, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, head of fixed income tradables at S&P Dow Jones Indices, says the national index is still up from last year, but not by much. “The Index rose just 0.7 percent year over year in February, down from 0.8 percent in January,” Godec said. “With consumer inflation at 2.4 percent, U.S. home values have lost ground in real terms for nine consecutive months.” Not all regions are the same, however. While Sun Belt cities have been seeing slight declines in annual home prices, Midwest and Northeast markets like Chicago and New York are still seeing nearly 5 percent year-over-year gains. (source)
