Case-Shiller: DC Home Prices Rise Incrementally

• April 24th 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

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The latest Case-Shiller report released this morning showed that seasonally-adjusted home prices (prices that factor in the typically slower home selling/buying activity of winter months) increased incrementally in the DC area between January and February 2012. The index reported that national home prices decreased on a monthly basis (-0.8%) and annual basis (-3.5%).

Between January and February, home prices increased in the low tier (under $293,756) for the DC area, but fell slightly in the middle tier (homes between $293,756 and $457,827) and the high tier (above $457,827).

While the news for the DC area was neither really bad nor good, the housing recovery for the rest of the country remains uneven. From Case-Shiller:

“While there might be pieces of good news in this report, such as some improvement in many annual rates of return, February 2012 data confirm that, broadly-speaking, home prices continued to decline in the early months of the year,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices.

When considering the Case-Shiller findings, recall that the index is based on closed sales and home price data from several months ago. (A better indicator of where area prices stand right now is the March report from RealEstate Business Intelligence.) Another thing that is important to note is that the main index only covers single-family home prices, so co-op and condo prices are not included in the analysis that is widely reported. Chicago and New York City are two of the cities where Case-Shiller provides a separate index for condo prices, but DC does not have a similar index.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly when considering the conclusions of the index, the area covered by Case-Shiller can only very loosely be described as the “DC area”. According to the site, the following cities are included: DC, Calvert MD, Charles MD, Frederick MD, Montgomery MD, Prince Georges MD, Alexandria City VA, Arlington VA, Clarke VA, Fairfax VA, Fairfax City VA, Falls Church City VA, Fauquier VA, Fredericksburg City VA, Loudoun VA, Manassas City VA, Manassas Park City VA, Prince William VA, Spotsylvania VA, Stafford VA, Warren VA, Jefferson WV.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/case-shiller_dc_home_prices_rise_incrementally/5454.