November 28, 2012 (Chris Moore)
Home values continued to improve in September according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices with 18 cities posting positive yearly gains in home prices.
Monthly average home prices for the 10-City and the 20-City Composite continued to improve in September, with both the 10-City and 20-City Composite posting a gain of 0.3 percent. Both Las Vegas and San Diego posted the largest monthly gain of 1.4 percent followed by Minneapolis and Phoenix with a 1.1 percent monthly increase.
Five Metropolitan areas posted declines in home values from the previous month, compared to only one the month before, with Cleveland reporting the largest decline of 0.9 percent followed by Chicago and Boston at 0.6 percent each.
Compared to September of last year, the 10-City Composite was up 2.1 percent while the 20-City Composite improved 3.0 percent. Phoenix was once again the only city to post a double digit gain over last year, improving by 20.4 percent. Minneapolis followed with an annual gain of 8.8 percent with Detroit close behind with a gain of 7.6 percent.
New York and Chicago were the only two cities to see a decline, falling 2.3 and 1.5 percent, respectively. Atlanta saw its first gain in year-over-year home values in 27 months
Not accounting for inflation, average home prices across the United States are back at the same levels they were in mid-2003.
Index levels for both the 10-City and the 20-City Composites have declined almost 29 percent from their peak in June/August 2006
Three MSAs, Atlanta, Detroit and Las Vegas, continued to see average prices that are below their January 2000 levels.
Tags: S&P, Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, 10-City Composite, 20-City Composite, home prices