US house prices unexpectedly gain in November, Case-Shiller shows
02-01-2017
Michele Maatouk Sharecast
House prices in the US unexpectedly rose in November, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index.
The 20-City Composite index was up 5.3% year-on-year from 5.1% in October, beating expectations for a slowdown to 5%.
Meanwhile, the national home price NSA index covering all nine US census divisions saw a 5.6% annual gain in November, up from 5.5% the month before.
Seattle, Portland, and Denver reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities over each of the last 10 months. In November, Seattle led the way with a 10.4% year-over-year gain, followed by Portland with 10.1%, and Denver with an 8.7% increase. Eight cities reported greater price increases in the year ending November 2016 versus the year ending October 2016.
David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said: “With the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index rising at about 5.5% annual rate over the last two-and-a-half years and having reached a new all-time high recently, one can argue that housing has recovered from the boom-bust cycle that began a dozen years ago.
“The recovery has been supported by a few economic factors: low interest rates, falling unemployment, and consistent gains in per-capita disposable personal income. Thirty-year fixed rate mortgages dropped under 4.5% in 2011 and have only recently shown hints of rising above that level. The unemployment rate at 4.7% is close to the Fed’s full employment target. Inflation adjusted per capita personal disposable income has risen at about a 2.5% annual rate for 30 months.”