Image: For Sale sign in front of a home on a gray day
Editorial Note: Intuit Credit Karma receives compensation from third-party advertisers, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our third-party advertisers don’t review, approve or endorse our editorial content. Information about financial products not offered on Credit Karma is collected independently. Our content is accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted.
Advertiser Disclosure
Offers that appear on this site are from third-party advertisers from which Credit Karma typically receives compensation. Except for mortgage loan offers, this compensation is one of several factors that may impact how and where offers appear on Credit Karma (including, for example, the order in which they appear).
Other factors may include: your credit profile and what products we think you want. It is this compensation that enables Credit Karma to provide you with services like free access to your credit scores and free monitoring of your credit and financial accounts. Credit Karma strives to provide a wide array of offers for our members, but our offers do not represent all financial services, companies or products.
As 2018 ended, the pace of U.S. home prices began to slow, according to data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.
This monthly index, which measures average home prices in major cities across the U.S., showed that in November of last year, home prices across the U.S. were 5.2% more expensive, down from October’s 5.3% price growth.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, a number of economists expect the pace of home prices to slow even further in 2019 given the downward trend last year.
Home-price growth began at a pace of about 6% at the beginning of 2018, dropping to near 5% by year’s end. But economists are anticipating that 2019 price increases will better reflect standard inflation growth, about 2% to 3%.
So why does this matter? If home prices rise at a slower pace, this could be good news for would-be homebuyers, who may have struggled in recent months with rising mortgage rates and mostly stagnant wages.
What’s more, slower price growth may provide a boost to the sluggish housing market. As the Journal reports, home-sales data from the National Association of Realtors showed that in December 2018, sales fell 6.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million homes — their lowest level since 2015.
About the author: Paris Ward is a content strategist at Credit Karma, providing readers with the latest news that will aid their financial progress. She has more than a decade of experience as a writer and editor and holds a bachelor’s… Read more.
Credit Karma News Fact-Checking Standards
Credit Karma’s writers and editors adhere to firm editorial standards, which help to ensure we produce accurate news content for our readers. Our news team thoroughly sources and fact-checks every article we publish, and we strive to deliver a balanced analysis of current events. Prior to publication, all Credit Karma news content must meet the following standards:
Content is accurate to the best of our knowledge when it’s posted.
Factual information included in news content is corroborated by reputable sources. If factual information can’t be corroborated by a reputable source, we don’t include it in the article.
References to quotes, statistics or research in news content should link out to or cite the original source of the information.
News content aims to provide appropriate background information and context to explain how the topic is relevant to our readers.
If necessary, or when we feel it’s appropriate, our news content includes advice on ways to navigate credit and tips on ways to manage debt.
