Part 2: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-August 2025

Yesterday, in Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-August 2025 I reviewed home inventory, housing starts and sales. I noted that the key stories for existing homes are that inventory has increased sharply while sales are essentially flat compared to last year (and sales in 2024 were the lowest since 1995). That means prices are under pressure. And there are significant regional differences too.

In Part 2, I will look at house prices, mortgage rates, rents and more.

These “Current State” summaries show us where we came from, where we are, and hopefully give us clues as to where we are going!

House Prices

The Case-Shiller National Index increased 2.3% year-over-year (YoY) in May and will likely be lower year-over-year in the June report compared to May (based on other data).

The Composite 10 NSA was up 3.4% year-over-year. The Composite 20 NSA was up 2.8% year-over-year. The National index NSA was up 2.3% year-over-year.

The MoM decrease in the seasonally adjusted (SA) Case-Shiller National Index was at -0.29% (a -3.5% annual rate). This was the third consecutive MoM decrease.

In the January report, the Case-Shiller National index was up 4.2%, in February up 3.9%, in March up 3.4%, in April report up 2.7%, and in May up 2.3%.

And the May Case-Shiller index was a 3-month average of closing prices in March, April and May. March closing prices include some contracts signed in January.

So, not only is this trending down, but there is a significant lag to this data.

Let’s review some more timely house price data …

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