Home Prices Rise 13.7 Percent Nationally

• January 28, 2014

by UrbanTurf Staff

Home prices rose 13.7 percent nationally between November 2012 and November 2013, according to the Case-Shiller report released this morning, marking one of the biggest gains since the index started tracking prices in 2000. In the DC region, prices rose 7.8 percent during that year-long stretch.

From the report:

“Beginning June 2012, we saw a steady rise in year-over-year increases,” said David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “November continued that trend with another strong month although the rate of increase slowed. Looking at the year-over-year returns, the Sun Belt continues to push ahead with Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa taking eight of the top nine spots. Detroit continues to recover but remains the only city with prices below its 2000 level.”

Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco all posted year-over-year price gains of more than 20%. For the 20-city index, prices are up 24 percent since bottoming out in March 2012, but remain about 20 percent below their 2006 peak.

The Case-Shiller Disclaimer

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 in the region is the January 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.com/articles/blog/home_prices_rise_13.7_percent_nationally/8052