Chi Homes Show Large Annual Gains

CHICAGO—Last month, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index, the Chicago metropolitan area recorded a 10.9% year-over-year gain in its home prices, the biggest jump since December 1988. And yesterday, the S&P Dow Jones Indices published the new index showing that Chicago-area year-over-year prices increased by 11.0%. This was, however, still below S&P’s 20-city composite of 13.7%. Furthermore, between October and November prices in Chicago declined 1.2%, the worst of any city in the study.

“Beginning June 2012, we saw a steady rise in year-over-year increases,” says David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. Furthermore, “November continued that trend with another strong month although the rate of increase slowed. Looking at the year-over-year returns, the Sun Belt continues to push ahead with Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa taking eight of the top nine spots.”