Good News for Housing

The Case-Shiller indexes of home prices increased again when compared to the previous month or the previous year. Both the 10-city and 20-city seasonally-adjusted (SA) indexes rose 1 percent and 0.9 percent respectively from May to June 2012. This is the fifth straight month for steady increases in the SA indexes. Since January, the 10-city and 20-city indexes have risen 3.5 percent and 3.6 percent respectively. The year-over-year changes were also much more encouraging than previous reports. At 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, the 10-city and 20-city annual changes were the first positive numbers since the end of the home buyer tax credit in 2010. Thirteen of the 20 metro areas experienced year-over-year increases and the seven that saw negatives were smaller (less decline) than the previous year-over-year comparisons. Dallas posted a 3.7 percent home price increase from last year. As economic curing continues across a broader segment of the country and the inventory of both existing and new homes dwindles, the National Association of Home Builders expects modest home prices increases to continue with some stronger improvement in the places that had the largest declines.

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           RISMedia, August 29, 2012