US home prices rose 0.3% in August from July, slightly ahead of the 0.2% economists expected, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The agency also revised July's gain down to 0.2% from the 0.3% first reported.
Annual growth came in at 2.4%, below the 2.6% forecast and below July's revised 2.6% pace, per the monthly purchase-only series built on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.
Prices are still losing ground to inflation
Inflation ran at 3.4% in August, roughly 1.3 percentage points above the 2.1% annual gain in the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index.
The 10-City Composite climbed 3.6% from a year earlier, up from 3.4% in July, while the 20-City Composite rose 2.7% from 2.5%.
That combination means homeowners are watching their biggest asset lose purchasing power even as the headline numbers stay positive.
Annual home price gains picked up in August
Case-Shiller year-over-year home price change, %, July and August 2026
- US National
- 20-City
- 10-City
Line chart. YoY change (%). July 2026: US National 1.90%, 20-City 2.50%, 10-City 3.40%. August 2026: US National 2.10%, 20-City 2.70%, 10-City 3.60%.
S&P Dow Jones Indices associate director of commodities Rebecca Kaufman said the real-terms decline has now run 15 consecutive months, though the gap narrowed in August.
The national number hides a very wide spread
Across the nine census divisions, monthly changes ran from a 0.8% drop in New England to a 2.1% jump in the East South Central division.
Annual changes stretched from 0.5% in the Mountain division to 4.4% in the East North Central division, so every division stayed positive over 12 months.
At the metro level, Chicago led for a sixth straight month with a 6.7% annual gain, followed by New York at 6.2% and Cleveland at 4.3%.
Seattle posted the steepest annual decline at 2.0%, with Las Vegas down 1.3% and Denver down 0.8%.
First American deputy chief economist Odeta Kushi described the pullback in former pandemic hotspots as a gradual decline rather than a crash, one that nudges affordability back toward balance.
Mortgage costs are working the other way. Freddie Mac's 30-year average sat at 7.32% last Thursday, up from the mid-to-high 6% range that prevailed in August.
Fairview Commercial Lending chief operating officer Glen Weinberg expects the squeeze of flat prices and steady inflation to stretch on for years.
The next FHFA report lands Nov. 24 with September data, the same day S&P Dow Jones Indices publishes its next Case-Shiller release.
