Home prices are up (a little) this summer
That according to the Case-Shiller, the gold standard in home prices indicators.
Nonetheless the VOLUME of homes (number of homes) selling has been in steep decline.
From the article:
Mirroring the trend for new home sales, pending home sales fell 7.1% in August, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). All four regions of the U.S. posted month-over-month and year-over-year declines in transactions.
Year over year, pending home sales were down 18.7%, an even greater decrease than the 14% annual drop recorded in July.
There is a clear seasonal pattern for house prices.
The surge in distressed sales during the housing bust distorted the seasonal pattern. This was because distressed sales (at lower price points) happened at a steady rate all year, while regular sales followed the normal seasonal pattern. This made for larger swings in the seasonal factor during the housing bust.