Prices Rise but Growth Is Slowest in Four Years

U.S. home prices rose 5.6% in the second quarter from the year-earlier period, the slowest pace in four years, amid an increase in unemployment, a government report showed.

The rate compares with a gain of 7% in the first quarter, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the Washington-based agency that oversees mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The last time housing price appreciation was slower was in the third quarter of 1999.

Higher unemployment is helping to cool price growth, for which the average advance over the last 22 years has been 4.8%, the housing agency said. In the real estate boom of the last five years, price appreciation had accelerated to as fast as 8.3% nationwide.

Rhode Island had the fastest pace of appreciation, at 12%, followed by California’s 9.4%, Florida’s 8.7%, 8.5% in Maryland and 8.4% in New York. Nebraska had the slowest, at 2.1%, with 2.5% in Utah and 2.6% in South Dakota.

From Bloomberg News