Home prices in the Chicago area eked out a sixth consecutive month of ever-so-small improvement in August, putting them on par with the market’s health in early 2003, according to the widely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released Tuesday.
In August, Chicago-area home prices on a non-seasonally adjusted basis rose 0.4 percent, after a 1 percent uptick in July, according to the index. Still, prices are down 2.9 percent from a year ago. Chicago was one of only five cities, the others being Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Washington D.C., that saw marginal improvements in home prices from July. August condo values in Chicago fell 2 percent from July.
On a national level, the index saw annual growth rates decelerate in 17 of the 20 metropolitan areas. “The housing market continues to bounce along the recent lows,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s.
So maybe the headline should be changed to read: Condo prices start to decline again. This is the beginning of a triple dip.
Sure, home prices are up a couple of bucks. Yesterday’s related story was Chicago home sales down 25%…
I’m not sure what data the author of this article is reading, but here are the actual Case Schiller number for January 2010 – August 2010. There is no August “increase” here (or 6-month increase, for that matter):
Jan 126.08
Feb 124.83
Mar 122.00
Apr 123.23
May 123.62
Jun 125.11
Jul 124.98
Aug 124.45
http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-case-shiller-home-price-indices/en/us/?indexId=spusa-cashpidff–p-us—-
Yep…real estate prices were up in August. It’s almost November now. Prices fell off a cliff in Sept. Case-Schiller is as useless as teets on a boar.
Regarding the earlier post, the discrepancy is that the article referenced non-seasonally adjusted numbers.
Home prices can only “improve” by going down. The headline should read, “home values improve”, because rising home values only benefit existing owners, not potential buyers.
@Michael: Actually as a homeowner who bought a house I can afford and plan to live in for a while, instead of one that I can’t afford and hope to “flip” for a profit I like home prices to go down and stay down. Sure it might give me a warm fuzzy if my house was theoretically worth more, but when my tax bill comes in I’m glad it isn’t so. The only people rising house prices help are those attempting to sell.
I have to agree with painhertz’ 10:02 post – Case-Schiller is useless and misdleading – as it was on the way into this crisis. Data from MRED – the local MLS – shows that in the 9 Illinois county Chicago area, the average sale price for houses and condos that closed in the month of August was down slightly after several months of modest gains. This is more a reflection of the changing mix in composition of the average as the ‘conventional’ buyers stepped away from the market, leaving distressed sales in the average at a higher percentage (but lower price) than conventional, non-distressed situations. This skews the average lower. Foreclosures rose to 39% of all sales in August, up from June’s 33%. September data shows the average price fell significantly (13%) as the foreclosure share of the market rose to 44%. Basically, in terms of sales volume, prices, and foreclosure influence, the market has fallen back to where it was in the mid-February to mid-March time period, erasing the gains seen due to the tax credit throughout April and into July.
@Homeowner: And where did you get the idea that taxes won’t go up because house prices are down? The schools still need to be paid as well as all the other programs/services. Just wait till you get the bill. (After the elections).
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