Chicago home prices showed respectable improvement in the November Case-Shiller, rising 0.8 percent year-over-year.

Chicago home prices bounced back in a respectable way in the November Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, increasing 0.8 percent year-over-year and reversing an unfortunate trend of falling home prices for the city, according to the latest release from Standard & Poor’s.

Nationally, the picture for home prices was much brighter, with U.S. home prices in the November Case-Shiller rising year-over-year in both the 10- and 20-City Composites by 4.5 and 5.5 percent, respectively.

November Case-Shiller – Positive Again for Home Prices

Other details in the November Case-Shiller included:

• In the last 12 months ending in November (the most recent month for which S&P has data), home prices have risen in 19 of the nation’s 20 largest housing markets, with only New York posting home price declines.
• Also in 19 cities, home prices rose faster in November than in October.
• Though the 10- and 20-City Composites are both down roughly 30 percent from their June/July 2006 peaks, they have increased by approximately 8-9 percent from their recent 2012 lows.

David M. Blitzer – ‘Housing is Clearly Recovering’

The November Case-Shiller, said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, should eliminate all doubts that the housing market is recovering.

“Housing is clearly recovering,” Blitzer said. “Prices are rising as are both new and existing-home sales. Existing-home sales in November were 5.0 million, highest since November 2009. New Home sales at 398,000 were the highest since June 2010. These figures confirm that housing is contributing to economic growth.”

And furthermore, Blitzer said we should not be dismayed by some of the falling home prices in the November Case-Shiller (Chicago home prices, for instance, were down 1.3 percent from October to November), because such declines are due to seasonal factors – not a slowing of the housing recovery.

“Winter is usually a weak period for housing which explains why we now see about half the cities with falling month-to-month prices compared to 20 out of 20 seeing rising prices last summer,” Blitzer said. “The better annual price changes also point to seasonal weakness rather than a reversal in the housing market.”