Metro Charlotte’s home prices closed out the year with a 5.3 percent increase in December, compared with the same time the previous year, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
Local home prices compared on a monthly basis were nearly flat, declining 0.4 percent in December from November, which is attributed to seasonal weakness, the latest S&P/Case-Shiller report says.
The index, released Tuesday, is the latest of several months of rising increases in year-over-year figures. November saw a 5.1 percent jump in year-over-year returns.Area home prices rose 4.1 percent in October from the same time the previous year, 3.5 percent in September, 2.8 percent in August and 2.2 percent in July. That's a considerable improvement from June, when the annual increase was 0.9 percent.
The report's composite of the top 20 cities leapt 6.8 percent for the year ending in December. The top 10 cities posted 5.9 percent growth.
And the national composite for 2012 showed an overall 7.3 percent increase, the index states. For the fourth quarter of 2012, average home prices across the country have returned to fall 2003 levels.
"From its low in the first quarter, it surged in the second and third quarter and slipped slightly in the 2012 fourth period," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices, states in the report. "The 10- and 20-City Composites, which bottomed out in March 2012, continued to show both year-over-year and monthly gains in December."
Home prices in 19 of the 20 markets tracked improved in December compared with the same time period a year ago. New York, as was the case last month, is the one city that posted a decline (-0.5 percent) in annual home prices.
However, Blitzer adds a caveat: "These movements, combined with other housing data, suggest that while housing is on the upswing, some of the strongest numbers may have already been seen."
Other items of note in the index:
•The Phoenix market once again shows double-digit annual gains, with a 23 percent gain in home prices for December compared with a year earlier. That’s up from 22.8 percent in November. Home prices in that market have grown for 15 months in a row, including eight straight months of double-digit increases.
•The Atlanta and Detroit markets reported their biggest year-over-year increases of 9.9 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively, since the index began tracking prices in January 1991.
• The Dallas, Denver, and Minneapolis markets posted their largest annual increases since 2001.
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