Home prices during the 12-month period ending January 2013 jumped closer to 10%, recording the largest annual leaps in both S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices in the past seven years.
S&P’s 10-city composite index shows home prices increasing 7.3% year-over-year during the 12-month period, while the 20-city composite index soared 8.1%.
The same indices edged up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, month-over-month.
The recovering market of Phoenix alone saw price gains of 23.2% for the 12-month period, while 19 U.S. cities experienced significant acceleration in home price growth.
“Economic data continues to support the housing recovery,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Single-family home building permits and housing starts posted double-digit year-over-year increases in February 2013. Despite a slight uptick in foreclosure filings, numbers are still down 25% year-over-year. Steady employment and low borrowing rates pushed inventories down to their lowest post-recession levels.”
Detroit, one of the hardest hit markets, continued to see price deceleration, while New York finally experienced price appreciation after 28 months in negative annual price growth.
The latest update to the indices follow the upward trend set in 2012. In January, home prices rose in 19 of the 20 U.S. cities, falling only in New York, for the 12-month period ending in November.
