Chicago bucked the national trend of slowing home-price growth in February, leading the United States as the metro with the fastest pace of price appreciation, S&P Dow Jones Indices said.

While the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index rose 0.7% year over year in February, compared to a 0.8% gain in January, Chicago led all markets in the 20-City Composite Index with a 5% year-over-year increase. On a monthly basis, the Windy City was up 1.04%. 

Over half of the 20 metros experienced year-over-year price declines, meaning the price-growth slowdown has expanded beyond its Sun Belt origins. 

S&P Dow Jones noted that inflation outpaced national home-price appreciation for the ninth month in a row, with the Consumer Price Index running 1.7 percentage points above the 0.7% annual gain. 

“With consumer inflation at 2.4%, U.S. home values have lost ground in real terms for nine consecutive months,” said Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices.  

“The geographic mix has shifted meaningfully,” Godec added. “Mountain West (Denver -2.2%) and Pacific Northwest (Seattle -2.0%) markets now sit alongside Sun Belt decliners Tampa (-2.1%), Phoenix (-1.8%) and Dallas (-1.7%). Los Angeles (-0.8%) and Washington, D.C., (-0.1%) joined the list of decliners, while Tampa’s decline narrowed for a fourth consecutive month, and Denver displaced it as the weakest market in the index.”