The rebound in San Diego home prices continued for a third month in April, but increases remained below the national average, according to the respected Case-Shiller report released Tuesday.
Local home prices rose 0.5% in April, after a 1.1% increase in March and 1.0% rise in February. Prior to February, local home prices had declined for six straight months.
Because of the six-month downward trend, San Diego home prices are up only 0.8% over the past year, compared to the national average of 3.5%.
Other cities on the West Coast have also experienced a slowdown. Prices are unchanged in Seattle and up only 1.5% in Los Angeles and 1.8% in San Francisco over the last year.
“Home price gains continued in a trend of broad-based moderation,” noted Philip Murphy, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Year-over-year price gains
remain positive in most cities, though at diminishing rates of change.”
Despite the slowdown in price increases, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce warned that home prices remain high enough to price many residents out of the market.
“What seems to consistently get minimized in this discussion is how very high home prices still are. This data should serve as a reminder of the need to incentivize home building — if we don’t add significantly more homes, San Diegans will continue to be priced out of the region,” said Stefanie Benvenuto, director of public affairs.