There have been no shortage of "housing market" stories lately. After sinking through much of late-last decade, home values slowly stabilized into mid-2011. By October 2011, values appeared to have bottomed. Today, nearly five-and-one-half years after the April 2007 housing market peak, home prices are finally showing their ability to rebound. Over the past 12 months, a bevy of housing market data highlights broad-based market growth. For example, as compared to August 2011, Existing Home Sales are up 9.3 percent nationally; New Home Sales are up 27.7 percent nationally; and home … [Read more...]
Case-Shiller Index Shows Huge Home Price Gain
Home prices continue to rise nationwide. According to the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index, home prices rose 6.9% between the first and second quarter of 2012, the largest quarter-to-quarter gain since the home-value tracker's 1987 inception and another signal that the housing market is in recovery. The private-sector metric's results are similar to what the government's Home Price Index showed for June, too -- values rising quickly. In addition, for the second straight month, each of the Case-Shiller Index's 20 tracked markets showed month-to-month improvement. June would … [Read more...]