S&P Dow Jones Indices released the most recent results for the leading measure of U.S. home prices, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes. On the broad spectrum, the 20-city composite gained an average of 4.9% year over year, versus the national index with a 4.2% gain. However two markets stood out from the rest.

Denver and San Francisco reported the highest year-over-year gains in home prices. The highest price increases were in Denver at 10.3% and then San Francisco at 10.0%, both roughly double the national average.

Coming in at third place was Dallas, which reported an 8.8% year-over-year gain.

For the month of April, before the seasonal adjustment, the national index increased 1.1% month over month. This remained the same even after the adjustment. As for the 20-city composite, it had gains of 1.1% month over month prior to seasonal adjustment and 0.4% after the adjustment.

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David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, commented on the findings:

Home prices continue to rise across the country, but the pace is not accelerating. Moreover, consumer expectations are consistent with the current pace of price increases. A recent national survey published by the New York Fed showed the average expected price increase among both owners and renters is 4.1%. Both the current rate of home price increases and the consumers’ expectations are a bit lower than the long term annual price change of 4.9% since 1975. These figures, however, do not adjust for inflation. The real, or inflation adjusted, price change since 1975 is one percent per year. Given the current inflation rate of under two percent, real home prices today are rising more quickly than is typical. The three out of five consumers in the survey who see home ownership as a good or somewhat good investment may be thinking in real terms.

He continued:

Recent housing data is positive. Sales of new and existing homes are rising in recent reports and construction of new homes enjoyed strong gains in May. At the same time, the proportion of new construction that is apartments rather than single family homes remains high. In the past year, 34% of housing starts were apartments, compared to 22% on average since 1975. One aspect of this may be condominiums.

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