The MReport Webcast: Friday 10/24/2014

Home value appreciation in in third quarter slowed to its lowest annual pace in the last year, further quelling analysts' fears of over-inflation in the housing market. Real estate data firm Zillow reported a 6 and a half percent year-over-year gain in its Home Value Index for September, bringing the index up to $176,500. Annual home price appreciation peaked this year in April at 8.1 percent and has steadily fallen since then, the company says. Zillow's chief economist, Dr. Stan Humphries, said the latest report comes as a relief compared to last year, when the market was experiencing unsustainable price growth that went well into the double digits in some areas.

By the end of Q3 2015, Zillow anticipates home value growth will level off to about 3 percent annually, less than half its current pace. With the market cooling down, Humphries said he expects home value growth to be driven less by temporary influences like supply problems and investor demand and more by traditional market fundamentals like household formation and job growth.

Home price growth accelerated in August following a slightly better than reported July, according to a new release from one of the nation's housing regulators. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported Thursday that U.S. house prices rose half a percent seasonally adjusted in August. The increase follows a revised 0.2 percent improvement in July. As a measure of home prices based on mortgages sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the FHFA's index gauges price changes exclusive of high-cost, non-conforming mortgages. As with most other measures, the index has seen a gradual slowdown in the last year as the housing market steps back from the kind of gains observed in 2012 and 2013.