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This morning, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) released May 2010 values for its Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks the prices of existing single-family homes. The index in each metropolitan area extends from a base value of 100 cited for January 2000. For example, Chicago metro’s May 2010 index value was 121.90 before seasonal adjustment; this translates to a 21.90% appreciation rate since January 2000 for a typical home located within the subject market. (Note: in accordance with a statement recently released by S&P, the values referenced below are not seasonally adjusted).
- Chicago was among 19 of 20 metropolitan areas that experienced a monthly increase in home prices, rising 1.2% from Apr. ’10 to May ’10. This marks Chicago’s first consecutive monthly increase in home prices since Aug.‘09/Sep.’09.
- Year-over-year changes also improved for 19 of 20 MSAs and both Composites, increasing from -1.6% to -1.5% in Chicago, and to +5.4% in the 10-city Composite, and +4.6% in the 20-city Composite (from 4.6% and 3.8%, respectively).
- However, while many of the data for May 2010 are positive, there is little evidence of a sustained recovery in the housing market. “Since reaching its recent trough in April 2009, the housing market has really only stabilized at this lower level,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's in a statement. “The two Composites have improved between 5 and 6% since then, but this is no better than the improvement they had registered as of October 2009. The last seven months have basically been flat.”
Source: S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
The full press release and additional data can be found on the S&P website.
