Home Prices Notch Spring Bounce

June 28 2011 The Wall Street Journal
By TESS STYNES

U.S. home prices rose in April from a month earlier, the first increase in eight months, though much of the improvement reflected the start of the spring-summer home buying season, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes.



More
Home Prices, by Metro Area
Consumer Confidence Drops
.
Home prices were lower year-to-year as the housing struggles to recover amid high unemployment, an abundance of foreclosures and tighter mortgage requirements.

The sequential growth was called "a welcome shift from recent months" by David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee. However, he said, "It is much too early to tell if this is a turning point or simply due to some warmer weather."

Though 13 cities reported higher prices, six metropolitan areas hit new lows: Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami and Tampa.

Housing prices had been declining this year, hitting a new post-bubble low in the first quarter. The National Association of Realtors last week said existing home sales declined 3.8% in May from April. The figure was down 15% from a year earlier when sales got a lift ahead of the deadline for the federal home buyer tax credit.

The Case-Shiller index of 10 major metropolitan areas edged up 0.8% and the 20-city index was up 0.7% in April from March. However, adjusted for seasonal factors, the sequential the 10-city figure was flat while the 20-city index was down 0.1%.

Compared with a year earlier, unadjusted prices April prices declined 3.1% for the 10 major markets while the 20-city index weakened by 4%.

Most of the major areas saw prices rise from a month earlier, with Washington seeing the biggest increase at 3%, followed by San Francisco at 1.7%. Detroit had the biggest drop, at 2.9%