Home prices see massive improvement
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released this morning, the 10-City and 20-City Composites increased by 10.3 percent and 10.9 percent in the year to March with the national composite rising by 10.2 percent in the last four quarters. S&P reports all 20 cities in their study saw positive annual home price growth.
Economists expected continued improvement, but this reading exceeds what the consensus was for this period and while they are still roughly 30 percent off of their summer 2006 peak, the beat up sector is due for these kinds of improvements.
Phoenix again had the largest annual increase at 22.5 percent followed by San Francisco with 22.2 percent and Las Vegas with 20.6 percent. Miami and Tampa, the eastern end of the Sunbelt, were softer with annual gains of 10.7 percent and 11.8 percent. The weakest annual price gains were seen in New York (+2.6 percent), Cleveland (+4.8 percent) and Boston (+6.7 percent).
Home prices post historic gains
“Home prices continue to climb,” says David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at the S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Home prices in all 20 cities posted annual gains for the third month in a row. Twelve of the 20 saw prices rise at double-digit annual growth. The National Index and the 10- and 20-City Composites posted their highest annual returns since 2006.”
Blitzer added, “Other housing market data reported in recent weeks confirm these strong trends: housing starts and permits, sales of new home and existing homes continue to trend higher. At the same time, the larger than usual share of multi-family housing, a large number of homes still in some stage of foreclosure and buying-to-rent by investors suggest that the housing recovery is not complete.”
Below is the the 10- and 20-city home price index over time:
