MW: November home prices tick down, Case-Shiller says
By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. home prices declined in November on seasonal weakness, with 10 of 20 major cities seeing lower prices, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday.
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite posted a non-seasonally adjusted 0.1% decrease in November following a 0.2% decline in October. After seasonal adjustments, the 20-city home-price index rose 0.6% in November.
“Winter is usually a weak period for housing, which explains why we now see about half the cities with falling month-to-month prices compared to 20 out of 20 seeing rising prices last summer,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Despite the recent decline, prices were 5.5% higher than during the same period in the prior year, for the strongest year-over-year growth since August 2006. For November, there were year-over-year price gains in 19 of 20 cities; New York was the only city with a lower year-over-year result.
“Housing is clearly recovering,” Blitzer said, noting positive trends for new- and existing-home sales.
However, prices remain 30% below a bubble peak in 2006, according to Case-Shiller data.
Ruth Mantell is a MarketWatch reporter based in Washington. Follow her on Twitter @RuthMantell.
