Chicago home prices in the December Case-Shiller were positive year-over-year, but continue to lag behind the rest of the country.

Chicago home prices were down 0.7 percent in the December Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s, as prices in Chicago continued to lag behind the rest of the country.

Though Chicago home prices were up 2.2 percent from December 2011 (and the 0.7-percent monthly decline reflects more seasonal trends in home prices than anything else), Chicago’s year-over-year returns were the second weakest among the 20 cities measured by S&P; only New York, where prices fell 0.5 percent year-over-year, posted weaker numbers.

Chicago Home Prices in December Case-Shiller

The home-price narrative was a much different one on the national stage, though, where home prices showed continued improvement in the December Case-Shiller:

• The national composite for the Case-Shiller rose 7.3 percent in 2012 over 2011.
• More specifically, the 10- and 20-City Composites, which pool prices from the top 10 and 20 metropolitan housing markets in the U.S., reported respective annual returns of 5.9 percent and 6.8 percent in 2012.
• Even monthly, the composites defied seasonal trends, with prices increasing 0.2 percent.

David M. Blitzer – Housings Leads the Economy

On the national stage, David M. Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, had nothing but good things to say about the Case-Shiller, though he did suggest that some of the more spectacular price gains in certain cities (yearly prices were up 23.0 percent in Phoenix, for instance) may be a thing of the past.

“Home prices ended 2012 with solid gains,” Blitzer said. “Housing and residential construction led the economy in the 2012 fourth quarter. In December’s report, all three headline composites and 19 of the 20 cities gained over their levels of a year ago … The 10- and 20-City Composites, which bottomed out in March 2012 continued to show both year-over-year and monthly gains in December. These movements, combined with other housing data, suggest that while housing is on the upswing, some of the strongest numbers may have already been seen.”