Case-Shiller: Home Prices Rise in DC and Across the Country

• September 25th 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

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On Tuesday morning, Case-Shiller reported that home prices increased by 1.2 percent between July 2011 and July 2012 in their 20-city index. In DC, prices rose on both a monthly (1.5%) and annual (3.7%) basis. Phoenix led the way in terms of price increases with prices jumping 16.6 percent year-over-year.

David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices, on the numbers:

“The news on home prices in this report confirm recent good news about housing. Single family housing starts are well ahead of last year’s pace, existing home sales are up, the inventory of homes for sale is down and foreclosure activity is slowing. All in all, we are more optimistic about housing. Upbeat trends continue. For the third time in a row, all 20 cities and both Composites had monthly gains. Stronger housing numbers are a positive factor for other measures including consumer confidence..”

Between June and July, home prices in DC increased in the low tier (under $293,756) and middle tier (homes between $293,756 and $457,827), while droppin ever so slightly for the high tier (above $457,827).

When considering the Case-Shiller findings, recall that the index is based on closed sales and home price data from several months ago (evidenced by the fact that this month’s report is about sales and price data from July). As such, the reported statistics are a better gauge of consumer sentiment, rather than what is going on in the market right now. A better indicator of where area prices stand currently is the August 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 region 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_national_home_prices_rise_dc/6069.