Metro Denver home price appreciation cooled slightly in November, allowing more markets with accelerating gains to catch up or pass it, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.
“Sometimes what happens is that you will see a lot of price appreciation, but those numbers can’t be sustained,” said Cheryl Young, an economist with Trulia in San Francisco.
The home price index for metro Denver rose 7 percent year-over-year in November, down from a 7.2 percent annual rate measured from July through October. November’s pace ranked Denver sixth out of 20 cities tracked, down from fifth in October.
Denver tied with Dallas, Detroit and Los Angeles at 7 percent. Had the rate of appreciation been any slower, Denver would have come in at ninth or below. The average increase for the 20-city index was 6.3 percent, which marked the 28th month that home price gains nationally have run above 5 percent, and Young said Denver remains a hot market.
“Home prices continue to rise three times faster than the rate of inflation,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in the report. “Without more supply, home prices may continue to substantially outpace inflation.”
For 13 months, through February 2017, metro Denver held the third spot for home price gains behind Seattle and Portland, Ore. Seattle, seemingly unstoppable, continued to lead the nation with a 12.7 percent gain in home prices in November, followed by Las Vegas at 10.6 percent and San Francisco at 9.1 percent.
