Existing home prices were up 18% from a year ago at the end of June, according to data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index.

That represents a slower pace of home price growth than was seen in the previous month, May, where we saw a 19.95 annual gain. The 10-city composite index increased 17.4%, down from 19.1% in the prior month. Meanwhile, the 20-city composite index was up 18.6% from a year earlier, down from the 20.5% growth it registered in May.

Of those 20 cities, Dallas, Miami and Tampa recorded the highest annual home price growth with increases of 28.2%, 33% and 35%, respectively. Just one of the 20 cities in the index saw higher home price increases in June than in May.

S&P Dow Jones Indices Managing Director Craig Lazzara said that it’s important to keep in mind that home price deceleration and decline are two very different things, and that home prices are still rising very fast.

“June’s growth rates for all three composites are at or above the 95th percentile of historical experience,” Lazzara said. “For the first six months of 2022, in fact, the National Composite is up 10.6%.”

In the last 35 years, only four complete years have witnessed increases that large, he said.

Another report last week showed home prices declined 0.77% from June to July. It was the first monthly fall in nearly three years, according to Black Knight, a mortgage software, data and analytics firm.

While the drop may seem small, it is the largest single-month decline in prices since January 2011. It is also the second-worst July performance dating back to 1991, behind the 0.9% decline in July 2010, during the Great Recession.

Home prices are softening due to rising mortgage rates, making an already expensive housing market even more so. Sales of both new and existing homes have been dropping for several months, leading some economists to call a housing recession.

“We’ve noted previously that mortgage financing has become more expensive as the Federal Reserve ratchets up interest rates, a process that continued as our June data were gathered. As the macroeconomic environment continues to be challenging, home prices may well continue to decelerate,” said Lazzara.