Driven by the homebuyer credit deadline, April’s price growth should be short-lived, keeping real recovery just out of reach. Despite the latest annual and monthly gains in the metro composite, prices haven’t budged far from last year’s trough, and nearly half of the surveyed markets hit new lows in 2010. See the following article from HousingWire for more on this.
House prices across 20 major metropolitan areas rose 3.8% in April from a year earlier, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s (S&P)/Case-Shiller House Price Index (HPI).
The 10-city composite HPI is up 4.6% from a year earlier:
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The Dallas, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco metropolitan statistical ares (MSAs) all posted six consecutive months of positive annual rates of return — at a respective 3.3%, 4.4%, 11.7% and 18%.
“Home price levels remain close to the April 2009 lows set by the S&P/Case Shiller 10- and 20-City Composite series,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P. “The April 2010 data for all 20 MSAs and the two Composites do show some improvement with higher annual increases than in March’s report.”
Blitzer added: “However, many of the gains are modest and somewhat concentrated in California. Moreover, nine of the 20 cities reached new lows at some time since the beginning of this year.”
On a monthly basis, 18 of the 20 MSAs improved from March 2010 data. These gains were likely driven by the end of the first-time homebuyer tax credit program on April 30, according Blitzer.
“Other housing data confirm the large impact, and likely near-future pullback, of the federal program,” he said. “Consistent and sustained boosts to economic growth from housing may have to wait to next year.”
This article has been republished from HousingWire. You can also view this article at HousingWire, a mortgage and real estate news site.
