Inman

Home prices make largest year-over-year jump in 6 years

Editor’s note: This story has been updated.

The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite index posted its largest year-over-year gain in January since the summer of 2006.

The index, which tracks single-family home prices in 20 large U.S. metros, was up 8.1 percent in January from a year ago with all 20 areas including New York, which hadn’t seen year-over-year positive light in 28 months, registering gains.

Nineteen of the 20 metros saw home prices jump higher in January from the previous year than they did in December with each area but New York (0.6 percent), Chicago (3.3 percent), Boston (4.0 percent) and Cleveland (4.8 percent) showing greater than 5 percent year-over-year leaps.

Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices & Fiserv

The January Case-Shiller report shows strong price increases, said Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko. "We’re seeing prices increase both in markets that had a really big decline during the bust," he said, "as well as markets that have really strong fundamentals."

Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko gives his perspective on the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices and U.S. Census Bureau’s new-home sales report that both came out today.

The other markets posting year-over-year gains were: Los Angeles (12.1 percent), Minneapolis (12.1 percent), Miami (10.8 percent), San Diego (9.8 percent), Denver (9.2 percent), Tampa (8.9 percent), Seattle (8.7 percent), Portland (8.3 percent), Dallas (7.0 percent), Charlotte (6.0 percent), Washington (5.9 percent), Cleveland (4.8 percent), Boston (4.0 percent), Chicago (3.3 percent) and New York (0.6 percent).

In January, however, eight of the 20-City Composite markets saw non-seasonally adjusted monthly declines in home prices. Chicago (-0.9 percent), Detroit (-0.9 percent) and Washington (-0.7 percent) led the way.

But if seasonal factors were taken into account, none of the 20 markets saw monthly price declines in January.

The nine markets experiencing non-seasonally adjusted monthly price declines in January were Chicago (-0.9 percent), Detroit (-0.9 percent), Washington (-0.7 percent), San Diego (-0.6 percent), Cleveland (-0.5 percent), Minneapolis (-0.5 percent), Portland (-0.4 percent), Seattle (-0.3 percent).

Markets seeing non-seasonally adjusted gains from December to January were Las Vegas (up 1.6 percent), Phoenix (1.1 percent), Atlanta (1.0 percent), Los Angeles (0.9 percent), Tampa (0.9 percent), Miami (0.8 percent), Charlotte (0.2 percent), New York (0.1 percent) and San Francisco (0.1 percent). Boston, Dallas and Denver saw no change.