24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Recent analysis shows that home prices nationwide rose to a record high in June.
• Detroit remains America’s cheapest housing market.
• Also: Dividend legends to hold forever.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index showed that home prices nationwide rose 5.4% in June compared to a year ago, reaching a record high. The figures did raise the question of whether homes are a good investment. Brian D. Luke, CFA, Head of Commodities, Real & Digital Assets, said, “Before accounting for inflation, home prices have risen over 1,100 percent since 1974, but have slightly more than doubled (111%) after accounting for inflation.” In at least one metro market, the answer to whether home prices have surged is “no.”

Case-Shiller took the 20 large cities it covers and gave each an index of 100 in January 2000. This allowed the researchers to see how much prices rose in each housing market compared to the others. For example, the city with the highest index in June was 449.24, which means it is the city in which prices have risen the most over the period. The national index for June was 325.23.

The city in which the index has risen the least since January 2000 is Detroit. Its index was only 190.47 in June. In other words, prices have not even doubled over the period. On an inflation-adjusted basis, it has fallen sharply.

Detroit may be the most impoverished large city in America. According to the Census Bureau, its poverty rate is 33.8%. Its population was 951,270 in 2000 and 633,28 last year. Based on these problems, Detroit’s index will not improve compared to the rest of the cities measured by Case-Shiller.

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