U.S. home price growth accelerated again in June, reaching its strongest pace in nearly a year despite high mortgage rates and continued affordability challenges.
Why it matters: Predictions of a major housing correction continue to run into the same problem—home prices aren’t falling nationally. In fact, nominal price growth is accelerating.
- The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index rose 1.5% from a year earlier in June, up from 1.2% in May and the strongest annual gain since August 2025.
- The closely watched 20-city composite was even stronger, with annual price growth accelerating to 2.1% from 1.6% in May, its highest rate since June 2025.
Breaking it Down: Chicago remained the hottest market among the 20 cities, with prices jumping 6.9% from a year ago. New York followed with a 4.8% increase, while Cleveland gained 4.1%. Seattle was the weakest market, with prices falling 2.0%.
Inflation Problems: There is one major caveat: Homeowners are still losing ground to inflation. June marked the 13th consecutive month in which U.S. home prices declined in real terms, with the 3.5% inflation rate running roughly 2 percentage points above the 1.5% increase in home values.
- “While home prices continue to decline in real terms, lower inflation and firmer nominal home price growth in June helped slow that pace of erosion,” said Rebecca Kaufman, associate director at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
The bottom line: Home values are still falling after adjusting for inflation, but nominal prices are not only positive, they’re accelerating. For now, we continue to wait for that great housing crash everyone has been warning about for the past six years.