Chicago-area home prices up in June over May By Associated Press Crain's Chicago Business 08-25-2009

Chicago-area home prices up in June over May
By The Associated Press
Crain's Chicago Business
August 25, 2009

U.S. home prices posted their first quarterly increase in three years, signaling the housing market has turned a corner.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller's U.S. National Home Price Index released Tuesday rose nearly 3 percent from the first quarter to 133, though that reading is still down almost 15 percent from the second quarter last year.

Home prices are at levels not seen since early 2003. Prices have fallen 30 percent from the peak in the second quarter of 2006.

Chicago-area prices rose 1.1 percent in June compared with May, the same percentage local prices rose in May compared with April. June prices in Chicago area were down 16.7 percent from June 2008, according to the indices.

The monthly index of 20 major cities increased 1.4 percent from May to June to 142, the second straight month the index registered a gain. All but two cities, Las Vegas and Detroit, saw home prices rise, and Dallas and Denver clocked their fourth straight monthly increase.

U.S. prices have a long way to go to recover completely. Every metro showed annual declines, with 15 reporting double-digit drops.

The Case-Shiller index is a composite of home price indexes for the nine U.S. census divisions. The 20-city index measures home price increases and decreases relative to prices in January 2000. The base reading is 100; so a reading of 150 would mean that home prices increased 50 percent since the beginning of the index.