Home prices rose 2.1% year over year in August, up from 1.9% in July, while consumer prices increased 3.4%, according to the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index. Chicago led metro areas for the sixth consecutive month, posting a 6.7% annual gain, followed by New York (6.2%) and Cleveland (4.3%). On the West coast, Seattle recorded the largest annual decline for the third consecutive month at 2.0%, followed by Las Vegas (-1.3%) and Denver (-0.8%).
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. National and 10-City Composite Indices fell 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively, while their seasonally adjusted counterparts rose 0.3% and 0.4%. “The divergence suggests that the typical post-summer slowdown is obscuring some underlying strength in home prices,” according to the index.
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly House Price Index, U.S. house prices rose nationwide in August, up 0.3% from the previous month. House prices rose 2.4% from August 2025 to August 2026. The previously reported 0.3% price increase in July was revised down to 0.2%.
For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly home price changes ranged from -0.8% in the New England division to +2.1% in the East South Central division. The 12-month changes ranged from +0.5% in the Mountain division to +4.4% in the East North Central division. The FHFA index is calculated using the prices of houses bought with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
