Southern California has 2 of largest US home-price gains

Home-price gains in San Diego and Los Angeles and Orange counties were among the four biggest surges among 20 cities tracked by the venerable Case-Shiller indexes.

By this math,  New York prices were up 9% in a year as of June, then came San Diego’s 8.7% gain, Las Vegas at 8.5% and LA-OC at 8.2%. Case-Shiller tracks a three-month periods and in this latest timeframe of homebuying the 30-year borrowing costs largely hovered around 7%.

All 20 cities had gain including: Chicago and Detroit at 7%, Miami at 6.9%, Cleveland and Seattle at 6.7%, Boston at 6.6%, Charlotte at 6.4%, Washington, D.C. at 6%, Atlanta at 5.1%, San Francisco at 4.3%, Phoenix at 3.7%, Tampa at 3.1%, Dallas at 2.3%, Minneapolis at 2%, Denver at 1.9%, and Portland at 0.8%.

Yet these home-price gains are a cooling. Prices rose 5.4% from a year earlier vs. 5.9% annual increase in May.

• HOW NIMBY ARE YOU? Ponder common objections to new housing. TAKE OUR QUIZ!

While listings are ticking up, house hunters are still struggling to find affordable properties. But thanks to high mortgage rates, there aren’t enough buyers in the market to create the level of competition that would drive prices up more significantly.

The price data shows “above-trend real price performance when accounting for inflation,” Brian Luke, head of commodities, real and digital assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement Tuesday. “Home prices and inflation continue to factor into the political agenda coming into the election season.”

While both home-price gains and inflation have slowed, “the gap between the two is larger than historical norms, with the national index averaging 2.8% more than the consumer price index,” Luke said. “That is a full percentage point above the 50-year average.”

• REAL ESTATE NEWSLETTER: Get our free ‘Home Stretch’ by email. SUBSCRIBE HERE!

The Federal Reserve is expected to start cutting its benchmark interest rate next month, potentially putting some downward pressure on mortgage costs. But many economists expect it will take much deeper declines to nudge reluctant buyers and sellers off the fence.

Bloomberg News and Jonathan Lansner of the Southern California News Group contributed to this report.