Case-Shiller Index Shows Home Prices Rise For Seventh Straight Month

Home prices rose for the seventh straight month in December of 2009 according to Case-Shiller Index. It wasn't huge, but what it showed is increasing price stability in a market which took a huge downturn in the wake of the Great Recession.

The Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index was released Tuesday. It showed a rise of 0.3 percent from November to December. The numbers were a seasonally adjusted reading of 145.87.

While the index was off 3.1 percent from December of 2008, this wasn't a surprise. It was in line with analysts' estimates of a 3.2 percent drop.

Given the recent uptick in the index, it is now up more than 3 percent from its bottom in May of 2009. However, it still lags 30 percent below its peak, which was in May of 2006.

The Case-Shiller home price index is compiled by Standard & Poor's and is usually referred to as the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller. It tracks the value of residential real estate in 20 metropolitan regions across the United States.

Only five of 20 cities in the index showed declines. Chicago was the worst, with a 0.6 percent decline. Los Angeles and Phoenix posted the largest price increases.

The following regions are used to create the index: PHXR Phoenix metropolitan area, Greater Los Angeles, San Diego County, California, San Francisco, Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area, Washington Metropolitan Area, South Florida metropolitan area, Tampa Bay Area, Atlanta metropolitan area, Chicago metropolitan area, Greater Boston, Metro Detroit, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Charlotte metropolitan area, Las Vegas metropolitan area, New York metropolitan are, Greater Cleveland, Portland metropolitan area, Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and the Seattle metropolitan area.

The methodology was developed by Karl E. Case, an economics professor at Wellesley College, and Robert J. Shiller, an economics professor at Yale. The index is created by collecting data on a monthly basis for sales of existing single-family homes. Published on the last Tuesday of each month, the index has a two-month lag.

Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com