South Florida home prices continue slow, steady growth

Home prices in South Florida are still rising but not at the rapid levels of the boom years, according to the release of Tuesday’s closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices.

Prices of existing homes in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties went up .9 percent in May compared to April and grew 6.6 percent from May 2015, the report found.

So far in 2016, South Florida home prices have grown at their slowest rate since the housing market began to recover in 2012. They increased at double-digit rates for most of 2013 and 2014 fueled by investors and foreign buyers, whose frenzied pace of buying has since dropped off.

Although hot waterfront markets like Miami Beach have returned to bubble-era pricing, South Florida as a whole hasn’t climbed back to peak values: Today’s home prices stand at about three-quarters of their pre-crash high..

Experts say slower growth could be a good thing as Miami faces an affordability crisis.

The cities with the largest annual price hikes were Portland, Ore. (12.5 percent), Seattle (10.7 percent), Denver (9.5 percent), Dallas (9.5 percent) and Tampa (7.7 percent).

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 12:14 PM with the headline "South Florida home prices continue slow, steady growth."