November Home Prices Set Another New All-Time High: Case-Shiller

By Paul Ausick Updated Jan 12, 3:19PM EST · Published Jan 31, 10:40AM EST

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November Home Prices Set Another New All-Time High: Case-Shiller — © Thinkstock

[cnxvideo id=”655354″ placement=”ros”]The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index rose to a record high of 185.23 in November, surpassing the previous high of 185.06 set in October.

In all 20 U.S. cities included in the 20-city home price index, November house prices increased year over year, and 17 of 20 also posted month-over-month increases. Seattle (up 10.4%), Portland (10.1%) and Denver (8.7%) posted the largest year-over-year gains. Tampa (0.6%) and Denver (0.6%) posted the largest month-over-month increase, while Chicago (down 0.8%) and Detroit and San Francisco (0.1%) posted the only month-over-month declines.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index for November increased by 5.3% year over year for the 20-city composite index and by 4.5% for the 10-city composite index. The national index rose 5.6% year over year, up from a month-over-month increase of 5.1% in October.

Economists had estimated a non-seasonally adjusted month-over-month gain in the 20-city index of 5%.

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The index tracks prices on a three-month rolling average. November represents the three-month average of September, October and November prices.

Before seasonal adjustment, the month-over-month National Index showed a gain of 0.2%, the 10-City Composite gained 0.2%, and the 20-City Composite posted also rose 0.2%. After seasonal adjustment, the month-over-month gains were 0.9% on the National Index, 0.9% on 20-City Composite and 0.9% the 10-City index.

Average home prices for November remain comparable to their levels in the winter of 2007.

The chairman of the S&P index committee, David M. Blitzer, said:

The [housing] recovery has been supported by a few economic factors: low interest rates, falling unemployment, and consistent gains in per-capita disposable personal income. Thirty-year fixed rate mortgages dropped under 4.5% in 2011 and have only recently shown hints of rising above that level. The unemployment rate at 4.7% is close to the Fed’s full employment target. Inflation adjusted per capita personal disposable income has risen at about a 2.5% annual rate for 30 months.

Compared with their peak in the summer of 2006, home prices on both 10-city and 20-city indexes remain down about 9% and 7%, respectively. Since the low of March 2012, home prices are up 40.6% and 43.3% on the 10-city and 20-city indexes, respectively.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.