Home prices continued to rise in October with prices up 4.3% annually within the 20-city composite index produced for the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
S&P says the 4.3% uptick in home prices signifies a "sustained recovery" in home prices. It also shows some consistency across research firms with Lender Processing Services ($31.90 -0.38%) also reporting that prices are up 4.3% year-over-year in October. The S&P 10-city composite index posted a 3.4% annual gain in October, which is steeper than the 2.1% jump in September.
Of the 20 major cities surveyed, 19 had higher annual home price returns in October when compared to September.
Chicago and New York were the only cities with negative home price returns for October. Meanwhile, the recovering Phoenix market saw home prices edge up for the 13th consecutive month in a row.
"Looking over this report, and considering other data on housing starts and sales, it is clear that the housing recovery is gathering strength," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Higher year-over-year price gains plus strong performances in the southwest and California, regions that suffered during the housing bust, confirm that housing is now contributing to the economy."
Blitzer suggests individual markets may illustrate the recovery the best. Home prices in Detroit are still 20% lower than 12 years ago, but 24.2% higher than the market bottom that occurred during the recession.
"San Francisco and Phoenix have also rebounded from recent lows by 22.5% and 22.1% with prices comfortably higher than 12 years ago," Blitzer wrote. "The smallest recoveries are seen in Boston and New York, two cities in the northeast which suffered smaller losses in the housing bust than the Sunbelt or California."
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