Early price trend data for November indicates another month of cooling for the nation's once-hottest markets--though others may soon step up to take their place.
[IMAGE]Online marketplace ""Trulia"":http://www.trulia.com/ released the latest findings from its ""Price and Rent Monitor reports"":http://info.trulia.com/trulia-price-and-rent-monitors-nov-2013, showing a shift in market trends as the housing market prepares for 2014.
Nationally, asking prices in November were up 1.0 percent month-over-month and 12.1 percent year-over-year, increasing annually in 98 of America's 100 largest metro areas. For the three-month period in November, asking prices rose 3.0 percent--the fastest quarterly increase in five months.
While price increases for the last few months have slowed down at the national level, Trulia's data suggest the greatest drag is coming from the same markets that only a few months ago were giving the biggest boost to price figures.
For example, in Las Vegas--where quarterly asking price gains were as high as 8.9 percent for the three months [COLUMN_BREAK]
ending August--quarterly growth slowed to 1.9 percent in November, putting it well below the national average. Similar trends were recorded in Oakland, Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Detroit--despite the fact that they were some of the strongest markets for annual price increases.
At the same time, of the 56 markets reporting annual price gains of less than 10 percent in November, many experienced accelerated quarterly growth, rising an average 1.6 percent compared with 1.3 percent in August. Such markets include Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Miami.
""The price slowdown--like everything about housing--is all local,"" said Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist. ""Price gains are cooling in 2013's hottest markets, like Las Vegas and Oakland, but heating up in markets that haven't been in the limelight.""
Meanwhile, rents climbed 3.0 percent year-over-year in November. Among the 25 largest rental markets, rents are rising fastest in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, while they're on the decline in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Trulia reported.
Despite the slowdown in asking prices in some of the largest rental markets, rent gains were still outpaced. This could soon make purchasing a home a less appealing choice to consumers, Kolko says.
""Homebuying is much less affordable at the end of 2013 than at the start,"" he said. ""Prices rose faster than rents in all of the largest metros, even in San Francisco and Portland, where rents rose 10 percent or more in the past year. Higher prices, along with higher mortgage rates, could make renting a better deal than buying in some markets in 2014.""