Metropolitan Existing Home Sales

Ealier this week, the NAR released its Q2 report of median home sale prices by metropolitan area. Here is a quick recap of that report, which for the most part showed a continued slowdown in home price appreciation.

Some of the hottest markets showed notable slowdowns, and some severe ones too. But overall, they are still showing modest appreciation, as opposed to outright declines in home prices.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Baton Rouge, LA showed the largest increase: +27.3% yr/yr
• Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA grew +23.6%
• Portland-Beaverton, OR rose +19.1%
• Jacksonville & Tampa, FL each gained +18.8%

Here are how some of the previous hottest markets fared last quarter:

• Las Vegas grew +6.3%, a marked slowdown from its mid-teens rate
• Los Angeles continues to show good growth, rising +14.6%, but down from 20%+
• New York-Long Island posted growth of +4.6%
• Phoenix showed moderate growth of +11.8%, also down from the 20s
• And red hot San Diego slowed all the way down to +1.2%

The one area that did show outright declines in home prices was Northeastern Ohio. This hits home for me, as I grew up and have family in Cleveland. Hopefully they aren't reading this, as home prices there declined -5.2% from the year-ago period. Ouch.

So what does it all mean? For now, it continues to paint a picture of a moderating housing market. But one that is coming in for a soft landing, as opposed to the precipitous drop that many are predicting. I would expect some additional weakness in the quarters to come, but I find it acceptable given the multi-year period of torrid growth we just experienced.

long one Los Angeles home