By Amina Niasse

NEW YORK U.S. housing price growth accelerated in June from a year earlier, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said on Tuesday, ending a 15-month streak of slowing annual price growth.

Home purchase prices increased by 3.1% year-over-year compared with a 2.9% rise in May, marking the first pick-up in price growth since February 2022. On a month-over-month basis, housing prices in June rose 0.3%, a deceleration from May's 0.7% increase.

For more than a year, the housing market has seen rising mortgage rates cut into sales volumes as more homeowners forgo selling their houses. The limited inventory has helped keep prices high as well, although price growth has moderated from rates above 19% in early 2022.

House prices also rose 3.0% between the second quarters of 2022 and 2023, FHFA said.

“U.S. house prices appreciated at a slightly higher rate in the second quarter amid low inventory,” said Anju Vajja, principal associate director in FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “While prices in a number of western states continued to decline year-over-year, house prices rose in all states quarter-over-quarter.”

The FHFA’s Housing Price Index compiles purchase data to measure single-family home prices across over 400 American cities. June’s year-over-year gains were strongest in the "East North Central" and New England regions, up by 5.4% and 6.8%, respectively.

(Reporting by Amina Niasse; Editing by Andrea Ricci)