Though home prices slowed a bit in Chicago in October, they maintained strong yearly gains.

Home prices in Chicago fell 0.5 percent from September to October, according to the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s.

Such declines were likely seasonal – eight other cities, including Boston and San Francisco – saw monthly prices fall, though home prices in Chicago were still up 10.9 percent year-over-year for October, which was the city’s best yearly increase since Dec. 1988.

National Home Prices Continue Double-Digit Performance

On the whole, national home prices were quite positive in October:

• The 10- and 20-City Composites posted yearly gains of 13.6 percent, which is the highest such increase since Feb. 2006.
• Both composites have now increased for 17 straight months, and have been in double-digit territory since March 2013.
• Monthly gains for the composites were a bit more modest, with both rising 0.2 percent from September to October.
• In all, 10 cities posted positive monthly returns, nine negative returns and one city (New York) was flat.

David M. Blitzer – “We Are Living on Borrowed Time”

David M. Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that though there were positive numbers in October’s Case-Shiller report, we should not get too used to such returns.

“Monthly numbers show we are living on borrowed time and the boom is fading,” Blitzer said. “The key economic question facing housing is the Fed’s future course to scale back quantitative easing and how this will affect mortgage rates. Other housing data paint a mixed picture, suggesting that we may be close to the peak gains in prices. However, other economic data point to somewhat faster growth in the new year. Most forecasts for home prices point to single digit growth in 2014.”