Home prices in the Chicago area jumped an average of 4.5 percent in May, turning in the best one-month performance of the 20 metropolitan areas included in a widely watched housing index.
It was the greatest one-month percentage gain for the local home price index since S&P/Case-Shilller began charting it in January 1987. Despite the improvement, home prices are down almost 36 percent since the Chicago-area market peaked in September 2006 and stand at a level not widely seen since February 2001.
On an annualized basis, Chicago-area home prices in May were down 3 percent from a year ago.
Nationally, S&P/Case-Shiller said average home prices rose 2.2 percent in May over April and on an annualized basis were down 1 percent for the 10-city index and 0.7 percent for the 20 cities studied. Only Boston, Charlotte and Detroit saw their annualized home prices worsen in May.
"We thought we saw the bottom in 2009. We thought we saw the bottom in 2010. We thought we saw the bottom in 2011," said Maureen Maitland, vice president at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Yes, there's no doubt these numbers were good. It's all good news, but it is two months of data."
Real estate web site Zillow said this month that the nation's housing market had bottomed, and Chicago-area home prices bottomed out in February.
Considering that in the spring of 2011, the nation's housing market saw five months of improvement before turning down again, Maitland said she'd like to see six to eight months of improvement in home prices as well as job growth, an increase in housing starts and other positive numbers for the economy and consumer confidence.
On Tuesday, the Conference Board reported a better-than expected uptick in consumer confidence.
May's 4.5 percent price gain from April was the second month-over-month improvement for the Chicago-area housing market, after a 1.2 percent uptick in April from March. Before these two months of improvement, home prices as measured by the index had been falling since August 2011.
All segments of the markets fared better on a month-over-month basis in May, but the greatest percentage gain was in homes that sold for between $147,048 and $249,933. Those average home prices rose 4.1 percent.
Condominium values rose an average of 4.7 percent in May, from April.
Last month, the Illinois Association of Realtors said that the median price of a home sold in the Chicago area in May rose 0.1 percent, the first uptick after 49 months of decline.
While the trade group calculates its prices using raw sales numbers, the S&P-Case Shiller index tracks the changing value of individual homes sold over time.
mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik
It was the greatest one-month percentage gain for the local home price index since S&P/Case-Shilller began charting it in January 1987. Despite the improvement, home prices are down almost 36 percent since the Chicago-area market peaked in September 2006 and stand at a level not widely seen since February 2001.
On an annualized basis, Chicago-area home prices in May were down 3 percent from a year ago.
Nationally, S&P/Case-Shiller said average home prices rose 2.2 percent in May over April and on an annualized basis were down 1 percent for the 10-city index and 0.7 percent for the 20 cities studied. Only Boston, Charlotte and Detroit saw their annualized home prices worsen in May.
"We thought we saw the bottom in 2009. We thought we saw the bottom in 2010. We thought we saw the bottom in 2011," said Maureen Maitland, vice president at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Yes, there's no doubt these numbers were good. It's all good news, but it is two months of data."
Real estate web site Zillow said this month that the nation's housing market had bottomed, and Chicago-area home prices bottomed out in February.
Considering that in the spring of 2011, the nation's housing market saw five months of improvement before turning down again, Maitland said she'd like to see six to eight months of improvement in home prices as well as job growth, an increase in housing starts and other positive numbers for the economy and consumer confidence.
On Tuesday, the Conference Board reported a better-than expected uptick in consumer confidence.
May's 4.5 percent price gain from April was the second month-over-month improvement for the Chicago-area housing market, after a 1.2 percent uptick in April from March. Before these two months of improvement, home prices as measured by the index had been falling since August 2011.
All segments of the markets fared better on a month-over-month basis in May, but the greatest percentage gain was in homes that sold for between $147,048 and $249,933. Those average home prices rose 4.1 percent.
Condominium values rose an average of 4.7 percent in May, from April.
Last month, the Illinois Association of Realtors said that the median price of a home sold in the Chicago area in May rose 0.1 percent, the first uptick after 49 months of decline.
While the trade group calculates its prices using raw sales numbers, the S&P-Case Shiller index tracks the changing value of individual homes sold over time.
mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik
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