US home prices rose 1.9% in July, trailing inflation for a 14th month

Home prices in the United States rose 1.9% in the year through July, a faster annual pace than in June. In that same month, a 30-year mortgage got more expensive every week.

That annual gain on the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller national index, which tracks repeat sales of single-family homes, was up from 1.6% in June. S&P Dow Jones Indices on Tuesday revised the June figure up from the 1.5% it reported in August. The 20-city index rose 2.5% from a year earlier, and its June gain was revised to 2.2% from 2.1%.

July was the 14th month in a row that sale prices rose by less than consumer prices, said Rebecca Kaufman, associate director of commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Inflation slowed a little from June, and sale prices rose a bit faster than a month earlier, which narrowed the gap, she said.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in the year through July, down from 3.5% through June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, and prices excluding food and energy rose 2.5%. Home prices trailed the 3.4% pace by 1.5 percentage points, and they trailed the 2.5% pace as well.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's seasonally adjusted index of homes with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages rose 0.3% in July and 2.6% from a year earlier.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose every week in July, Freddie Mac said, from 6.43% in the week ending Thursday, July 2, to 6.66% in the week ending Thursday, July 30. The sales behind Tuesday's prices closed during that climb, before the average reached 7.03% in the week ending Thursday, September 24.