Chicago's Home Recovery Lags Trend

CHICAGO, IL- Although home prices throughout most American cities continued to increase, Chicago’s recovery remains somewhat slower than the national average of other metro areas, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, released yesterday by S&P Dow Jones Indices. Average home prices in the 20 cities studied increased 8.1% from January 2012 to January 2013, but Chicago’s average only increased 3.3%, the smallest gain of any city except New York.

Other Midwestern cities included in the study were Detroit, Cleveland and Minneapolis. Both Detroit and Minneapolis posted double-digit gains. But the housing bust knocked the Motor City’s prices into such a deep trough they had nowhere to go but up. Average home prices there increased 13.8% to slightly more than $80,000, still the lowest of all the cities. Minneapolis’ average rose 12.1% and even Cleveland’s mediocre 4.8% bested Chicago.