US Housing Prices Create Seller's Market

U.S. house prices were up 5.4% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index report released Tuesday.

Sustained Housing Growth: Home prices increased in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. on a year-over-year basis, the agency said.

This increase continues the trend of house prices rising for 36 straight quarters.

House prices also increased in 99 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas nationwide. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii experienced the largest increase, at 11.7%. San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, California experienced a 0.3% decrease in home prices.

One driver of this decrease could be the many tech companies, including Twitter TWTR, that are allowing employees to work from home anywhere in the country. 

Summer Rebound: "House prices fell slightly in May relative to April. In June prices rebounded by 0.9% over the month as local economies re-opened and transactions picked up again," Dr. Lynn Fisher, the FHFA's deputy director of the division of research and statistics, said in the report. 

The FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June increased 0.9% over May.

The median sale price of a new home in the U.S. in July was $330,600, the Census Bureau said Tuesday, representing a 7.2% year-over-year increase.