US Home Prices Pick Up Pace, SF and Denver Gallop Ahead
The latest S&P/Case Shiller 20-city home price index showed values growing at a more subdued pace than two years ago, but still at a rate that outpaced wage growth and may be pricing young buyers out of the market. Values in March rose 5% compared to a year earlier, which fell in line with February's pace. Back in 2013 there was a streak of double-digit gains.
Winners of the March index included:
- San Francisco and Denver, which enjoyed the biggest leaps of all markets on the index with increases of 10.3% and 10%, respectively. Those cities swapped the winner and runner-up positions from last month's survey.
- Time-pinched sellers. In April homes sold an average 39 days after hitting the market, versus 52 days in March.
Washington, DC and Cleveland saw more sclerotic improvement, with year-over-year improvements of around 1%. Just as there were repeat winners in this index, DC and Cleveland mimicked their bottom-of-the-barrel performance in February results. However all 20 cities on the gauge saw prices move up. Unfortunately American workers are not seeing similar fattening of their paychecks: wages were up a mere 2.2% in April in a persistent plateau that has prompted many to put off the biggest of big ticket purchases.
Prices in March jumped 0.9% from the previous month, when harsh winter weather crippled a good deal of economic activity. Still, despite a stream of headlines about the white hot ultraluxury market in select cities, prices across the S&P/Cash Shiller gauge remained 15% below their pre-recession heights.
