Us house prices rose the most in two years in August as demand for homes was boosted by low mortgage rates and supply tightened.

The top 20 metropolitan area house price index compiled by s & p CoreLogic Case-Shiller rose 5.2% from a year earlier, better than all analysts expected in a Bloomberg survey and the biggest year-on-year increase since august 2018.

Demand for homes surged as Americans who were not unemployed during the COVID-19 epidemic moved to the suburbs to expand their living space. In addition, as the company allows employees to continue to work from home, the sales of second-hand houses are also very fast. In some areas, bidding wars are becoming more and more common.

"House prices have been pushed up as demand surges and supply remains in short supply," said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities. "people are staying at home more and more, so they are less inclined to sell now."

According to the report, the largest increase was in Phoenix, where house prices rose 9.9%, followed by Seattle, up 8.5% from a year earlier, and San Diego up 7.6%.

Matthew Speakman, an economist at Zillow, said "house prices have risen astonishingly", deviating from the usual seasonal pattern.

"while the overall economic development path may most directly depend on the development of the epidemic and political situation in the coming months, recent trends suggest that the housing market, which has so far withstood all the epidemic-related challenges, will continue to be strong in the coming months," Speakman said in a statement.