US market: Index Shows an Improvement in Home Prices

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From the NY Times.


House prices continued to improve in June as a modest spring recovery started to strengthen, according to data released Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index has shown that prices in 20 major cities increased 1.4 percent during the month, nearly triple the rate of growth in May.

“May’s glimmer of stabilization has held up,” said Maureen Maitland, vice president for index services at Standard & Poor’s. She cautioned, however, that “we need a few more months of progress to start talking about a real recovery.”

Housing prices are still down sharply in comparison to last year’s figures. The 20-city composite index is off 15.4 percent. But this too is a marked improvement from its record loss of 19.1 percent last winter. Average home prices are now at the level they were in early 2003.
Eighteen of the cities in the index improved in the month. Cleveland rose 4.2 percent from May, Minneapolis was up 3.1 percent and San Diego was up 1.6 percent.

The two cities that declined were Detroit and Las Vegas, among the most economically troubled places in the country. Las Vegas prices are now down 54.3 percent from its peak. Detroit has fallen 45.3 percent.

The news comes on the heels of a report from the National Association of Realtors that oints to existing home sales in July having risen for the fourth consecutive month, for the first time since 2004. July sales were 5 percent above the pace in July 2008, the first year-over-year gain since the market peaked in November 2005.