Chicago home prices declined on both monthly and yearly measures in the October Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Chicago home prices fell by 1.5 percent from September to October in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s.

In addition, Chicago home prices were down 1.3 percent from October 2011; though a number of other metropolitan areas saw their prices decline from September to October for seasonal reasons, Chicago’s yearly decrease was the most in the nation, and New York was the only other city to post negative annual returns for October.

Chicago Home Prices – Exception to National Trends

Chicago home prices, however, were the exception to national home price trends, which continue to grow more and more encouraging with each release of the Case-Shiller:

• Home prices rose 4.3 percent year-over-year in the Case-Shiller’s 20-City Composite, and 3.4 percent in it 10-City Composite.
• Both of those results were stronger than September’s yearly returns, when the 10- and 20-City Composites posted increases of 2.1 and 3.0 percent.

David M. Blitzer – Housing Recover “Gaining Strength”

The strong yearly returns are a very encouraging trend, considering that for the housing recovery, a benchmark for many analysts is that of consistent (and strengthening) year-over-year price increases – a view that David M. Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee for Standard & Poor’s, echoed in comments with the Case-Shiller report.

“Annual rates of change in home prices are a better indicator of the performance of the housing market than the month-over-month changes because home prices tend to be lower in fall and winter than in spring and summer,” Blitzer said. “Both the 10- and 20-City Composites and 19 of 20 cities recorded higher annual returns in October 2012 than in September.”

And as housing gains strength, Blitzer continued, it will begin positively contributing to the economy – though in some spots in the U.S., it already has begun doing just that.