Home appreciation pace continues its dive

The pace of annual home price appreciation in San Diego County continued its dive in May, dropping by about 3 percent for the second consecutive month.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Index showed Tuesday that from May 2013 to May 2014, home prices in San Diego County rose 12.4 percent, down from 15.3 percent in April, and 18.7 percent in March. The slowdown is coming as the county’s housing market has not maintained the investor-led appreciation that quickened the home price recovery in 2013. Annual appreciation has been on the decline since peaking at 21.5 percent in August 2013.

David Blitzer, chair of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said nationwide home prices are rising at their slowest pace since February 2013.

“Housing has been turning in mixed economic numbers in the last few months,” he said. “Prices and sales of existing homes have shown improvement while construction and sales of new homes continue to lag. At the same time, the broader economy and especially employment are showing larger improvements and substantial gains.”

The index, which lags two months, measures repeat sales of single family homes. From April to May, prices in the county rose 0.5 percent, second slowest on the 20-city index behind Phoenix’s 0.4 percent monthly gain.

DataQuick, another real-estate tracker, reported in May that San Diego County’s median home price was $440,000. It rose to $450,000 in June.

San Diego’s value on the Case-Shiller index was 201.85, highest since December 2007, the month the Great Recession began. The nation’s composite on the 20-city index was 170.64, a 1.1 percent gain over the month, but also good for 9.3 percent year-over-year appreciation.

Las Vegas had the highest annual gain in May, with prices up 16.9 percent (that’s still down from 18.8 percent in April). San Francisco’s appreciation was the second highest at 15.4 percent, down from 18.2 percent the month before.