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U.S. home prices continued to fall in August despite the housing market showing signs of cooling after rising mortgage rates sidelined more prospective buyers.
Home prices were down 0.7 percent from the previous month, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index.
Meanwhile, home prices rose on average 11.9 percent from August 2021 to August 2022, highlighting the tough reality for many future homeowners.
In July, the index reported a 0.6 percent price decline, as the market begins to show signs of stabilizing after a number of states experienced record highs for property prices.
In the report, Will Doerner, the supervisory economist in FHFA's Division of Research and Statistics said: "U.S. house prices declined in August at a similar pace to the previous month.
"This is the first time since March 2011 that the index has seen two consecutive months of decline.
"The recent monthly decline solidifies the deceleration of 12-month house price growth that began earlier this year.
"Higher mortgage rates continued to put pressure on demand, notably weakening house price growth."
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
About the writer
Emilia Shovelin is Newsweek's Personal Finance Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on U.S. personal finance, property ... Read more