Chicago Area Home Prices Show Small Gain

By Andrew Schroedter · February 28, 2013 · Chicago News

First the good news: Chicago area home prices increased slightly last year, compared to 2011, according to the widely watched S&P/Case-Schiller index.

Year-over-year prices climbed a modest 2.2 percent.

Now the bad news: Among the 20 major cities in the Case-Schiller index, only New York fared worse with year-over-year prices dipping 0.5 percent in 2012.

Nationally, prices increased 7.3 percent last year. Phoenix led the way with a 23 percent gain, followed by San Francisco (14.4 percent), Detroit (13.6 percent) and Las Vegas (12.9 percent), according to the index.

“Home prices ended 2012 with solid gains,” says David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement. “Housing and residential construction led the economy in the 2012 fourth quarter.”

What’s more, Dallas, Denver, and Minneapolis recorded the largest annual price increases since 2001, and values in Phoenix have grown by double digits for eight consecutive months, according to the index. In a sign of how far the housing market has fallen, average U.S. home prices have now returned to fall 2003 levels.

In Chicago, the excitement is tempered.

The area’s prices fell 0.7 percent in December, from the previous month, and 1.3 percent in November, from October, according to the index.

Of the areas in the top-20 composite only nine showed increases in December with Las Vegas climbing 1.8 percent. Eleven cities saw price declines; Chicago’s 0.7 decrease was the largest of any major urban area.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, Chicago performed a little better: Prices climbed 0.4 percent from November to December and 0.3 percent from October to November.