September ICE Mortgage Monitor: Annual home price growth was 1.5% in August
Here is the ICE September Mortgage Monitor report (pdf). Press Release: ICE Mortgage Monitor: Property Insurance Costs Rise 8.7% Annually, but Rate of Growth Is Sharply Slowing Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. … today released the September 2026 ICE Mortgage Monitor Report. The analysis finds that while insurance costs reached another record high in the second quarter, the pace of growth is beginning to moderate, and homeowners who shopped for coverage found meaningful opportunities to save. “Property insurance has been a fast-growing component of the monthly mortgage payment, but this quarter’s data shows the pace of increase is finally slowing,” said Andy Walden, Head of Mortgage and Housing Market Research at ICE. “The 1.8% quarterly gain we saw in Q2 is the smallest since we began tracking this metric. At the same time, borrowers who shopped around saw real savings. Those who switched carriers cut their premiums by a record 6.6%, while also securing lower deductibles and more coverage than those who stayed put.” Key findings from the September Mortgage Monitor include: Property insurance accounts for 9.6% of the average monthly mortgage payment The average single-family mortgage holder now pays a record $209 per month for insurance, nearly 80% more than at the start of 2020. The burden varies widely by market, ranging from 24.3% of the average mortgage payment in New Orleans to just 4.3% in San Jose. Property insurance costs rose 8.7% annually, but the pace of growth is slowing Cost increases have eased from 11.4% at the start of the year and a peak of 15.1% at the end of 2024. Coverage limits, which are up 5.5%, accounted for roughly two-thirds of the past year’s increase, while the cost per $1,000 of coverage rose 3%. This is a reversal from 2024, when repricing drove the majority of cost growth. Insurance cost trends are diverging sharply across the country Some of the largest annual increases were seen in Greenville, South Carolina (+15.8%); Honolulu (+14.7%); Minneapolis (+13.1%); and Sacramento and San Diego (roughly +12%). Many of the fastest increases are occurring in markets affected by recent hurricanes, wildfires and hail. Meanwhile, Miami and New Orleans — the nation’s two most expensive insurance markets — saw among the smallest annual increases. Switching carriers produces significant savings for homeowners Homeowners who switched between private carriers over the last year, reduced their insurance payments by a record 6.6% on average, the largest savings since ICE began tracking the data in 2013. By contrast, those who stayed with their existing carrier saw premiums increase by 10.4%. Switchers saved $440 a year compared to their counterparts, while also maintaining favorable terms, with deductibles falling 1.4% and coverage limits increasing 7.3%. More regional savings trends can be found in the full report. emphasis added Mortgage Delinquency Rate Decreased in July Here is a graph of the national delinquency rate from ICE. Overall delinquencies decreased in July and remain below the pre-pandemic levels. Source: ICE McDash The national delinquency rate fell 16 basis points to 3.39% in July — 12 basis points above July 2025, marking the narrowest year-over-year gap in seven months — and is now 41 basis points below the pre-pandemic benchmark of 3.80% set in January 2020. While the improvement was broad-based, with 30-, 60- and 90-plus-day delinquencies all declining, the largest improvement was seen among early-stage delinquencies, which fell by 73,000 in the month to within 2,000 of July 2025’s level and remain 12% below 2019 levels. Loans 90 or more days past due but not in foreclosure fell by 7,000 to 563,000, extending the run of declines that began after February’s peak of 612,000. Volumes, however, remain up 97,000, or 21%, year over year and 87,000 above July 2019 levels. Overall, seriously past-due mortgages, including those in foreclosure, are up 28% from the same time last year but have begun to flatten in recent months, holding between 850,000 and 878,000 since January. House Prices Up 1.5% Year-over-year in August Here is the year-over-year in house prices according to the ICE Home Price Index (HPI). The ICE HPI is a repeat sales index. ICE reports the median price change of the repeat sales. The index was up 1.5% year-over-year at the end of August. ICE’s August Home Price Index showed annual home price growth accelerating for the sixth consecutive month to 1.5%, the largest annual gain since early 2025. The recent acceleration continues to be largely driven by the lower rate environment of early 2026 infusing demand into the market, along with a weak summer 2025 rolling out of the backward-looking 12-month window. Seasonally adjusted gains have moderated in recent months, which will put a ceiling on how high annual home price growth climbs over the back half of 2026. Adjusted gains have run at an annualized pace of 2.1% over the past six months, slowing to 1.3% on average over the past three months, suggesting that under the hood, home price growth has already begun to cool again despite the headline rate continuing to move higher. Home prices among single-family homes (up 1.8%) continue to outpace condos (down 0.8%), with almost every major market seeing single-family residences outperform condos and condo prices below last year’s levels in more than half of markets. Nearly 80% of major markets experienced home price gains year over year in August, with the Midwest and Northeast continuing to lead the nation. Youngstown, Ohio, had the strongest annual growth, at 7%, in August, followed by a cluster of Northeast markets — Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton, Hartford, Bridgeport and Albany — with gains ranging from 5.3% to 7%. Among the 50 largest markets, Hartford, Conn. (6.1%); Chicago (5.2%); Milwaukee (5%); New York/Newark (5%); and Cleveland (5%) posted the strongest gains. Roughly 20% of markets saw annual price declines, led by Seattle (down 2.4%), Stockton, Calif. (down 2.3%), Cape Coral, Fla. (down 2.3%) and San Antonio (down 2.1%) San Francisco (up 2.6%) and Miami (up 1.6%) experienced the largest moves up the national rankings among the 100 largest markets, climbing from 92nd and 94th a year ago to 34th and 49th as of August. While both markets remain roughly in the middle of the pack nationally, the shift marks a notable improvement from the price declines in both markets a year ago. Seattle, which ranked 73rd a year ago, had one of the largest drops in the rankings, now ranking last among major markets with the largest annual price decline in August. There is much more in the mortgage monitor . CalculatedRisk Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Thanks for reading CalculatedRisk Newsletter! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share