Home Values Higher in 19 of 20 Case-Shiller Markets

For the second straight month, Standard & Poors’ Case-Shiller shows higher values across their surveyed markets.

This is not indicative of a categorical market recovery and the Case-Shiller analysts were pretty fair in their press release. The market as a whole is flat versus October of last year.  Still, there was some data worth looking at.

1. 13 of the 20 tracked cities are showing home price improvement year-over-year
2. Former foreclosure-leader, San Diego, has now shown 13 straight months of improvement
3. San Diego, San Francisco and Minneapolis are showing double-digit annual growth

These are all good signs.  Case-Shiller is not without flaws.  Notably, the data is limited to 20 cities and includes Tampa, the 54th largest market, while excluding Houston, Philly, and San Jose.  It also is released on a 2-month delay.  So, with August around the corner, Case-Shiller is only now releasing May data.   Like all metro-driven surveys, it also lumps Chicago into a composite value and misses the nuances from South Loop to West Loop and Lincoln Park to Lincoln Square.  Real estate is local, very local.  Case-Shiller is national and not all that comprehensive of a national statistic.

Still, good signs are good signs.   Case-Shiller is great for watching longer-term trends; however, for real-time data, talk to a real estate professional.