San Diego home prices resumed their rise in December after an unusual dip in November, but America’s Finest City no longer leads the nation in price appreciation.
The widely followed Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed a 0.2 percent increase from November to December, the same as the national average, and partly reversing the 0.3 percent drop the previous month.
For all of 2017, San Diego home prices were up 7.4 percent, above the national average of 6.3 percent but below the double-digit increases in Seattle and Las Vegas.
Still, there were signs in the report and other recent home activity that the pace of home price increases is slowing.
“Within the last few months, there are beginning to be some signs that gains in housing may be leveling off,” said David M. Blitzer, managing director of S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Sales of existing homes fell in December and January after seasonal adjustment and are now as low as any month in 2017.”
“It is too early to tell if the housing recovery is slowing,” he added, but noted that “the rise in home prices should be causing the same nervous wonder aimed at the stock market after its recent bout of volatility.”