Charlotte home prices show largest annual increase since index was created

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Charlotte area home prices rose 8.8 percent in October from the year before, posting the largest annual increase since its index was created in 1987, according to data released by Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller.  Month-over-month, the October report showed Charlotte housing prices rising a non-seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent from September.

The Case-Shiller Home Price Index is a composite of single-family home price indexes that measure nine U.S Census areas and is calculated quarterly.  The report uses a base value of 100, which was assigned in January 2000.

Nationally, the data show U.S. home prices continuing on an upward trend, increasing 13.6 percent year-over-year and 0.2 percent month-over-month.  The annual gains for the 10-city and 20-city composite reports are the highest since February 2006, with October numbers marking the 17^th consecutive month of home appreciation for both composites on an annual basis.

Las Vegas leads in price gains, with home values up 27.1 percent year-over-year. Miami’s annual rate increased the most, by 15.8 percent in October compared to the previous year from 14.3 percent in September compared to September 2012.

Despite the strong increase in annual prices, monthly returns indicate a softening in the national housing market.

Ten cities including Charlotte posted increases in home prices from September to October. However, nine cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., showed prices declining month-over-month.

“Monthly numbers show we are living on borrowed time and the boom is fading,” cautioned David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

“The key economic question facing housing is the Fed’s future course to scale back quantitative easing and how this will affect mortgage rates. Other housing data paint a mixed picture suggesting that we may be close to the peak gain in prices,” added Blitzer.

The report said many forecasts predict home prices will have slower single-digit growth in the coming year.