Broad measures of home prices continue to show improvements, as the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index registered its second straight monthly increase. According to the Wall Street Journal, Case Shiller’s 20-city index ticked up on a quarterly basis 1.4% from the three months ending May 31.

2 cities still showed month-over-month declines, woeful Detroit and Las Vegas. The only cities showing single digit annual declines, Dallas, Cleveland, Denver, Boston and Charlotte, were some of the markets that held up longer than most, and are still in the early stages of their price correction.

Yale’s Robert Shiller, who along with Carl Case devised the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, warns that despite the positive data, foreclosures and job losses could still hamper any legitimate housing recovery. Mortgage defaults, especially in the Prime market, continue to rise, which is leading to increased inventory and falling prices in high-end real estate markets around the country.

The experts at Cirios Real Estate are watching the data closely, especially as the summer buying season shuts down and we move into the traditionally slow fourth quarter. This transition will be the first true test of this housing “recovery.”

Tags: case shiller, cirios, home price index, S&P

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 9:38 am and is filed under Mortgages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.