Home prices in the Chicagoland area posted some of the slowest growth in the nation, according to the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s.

In March, Chicagoland home prices rose just 1.9 percent year-over-year, which was second only to Washington D.C.’s 1.5 percent growth and far behind the national average of 5.2 percent; granted, the Second City’s monthly growth from February to March was more encouraging, with the area’s 1.0-percent growth higher than the national average of 0.7 percent.

Economic Trends Drive Housing Growth

In comments accompanying the Case-Shiller report, David M. Blitzer, the managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that wider economic trends are positively affecting housing in 2016.

“The economy is supporting the price increases with improving labor markets, falling unemployment rates and extremely low mortgage rates,” Blitzer said. “Another factor behind rising home prices is the limited supply of homes on the market. The number of homes currently on the market is less than 2 percent of the number of households in the U.S., the lowest percentage seen since the mid- 1980s. “