Home price index jumps

The Standard & Poor/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices included some good news for the housing market, as 10- and 20-city composites hit the highest year-over-year gains since March 2006.  

“Home prices continue to strengthen,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Two cities -- Dallas and Denver -- set new highs, surpassing their pre-crisis levels and five cities -- Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle -- posted monthly gains of over 3%, also a first-time event.”

Compared with a year ago, the 20-city composite increased 12.2%. On a month-to-month basis, the index increased 2.6%.

The growth was across the board. In fact, the data through the end of May shows that 20 cities measured by the index increased from May 2012 to May 2013 -- and also from April 2013 to May 2013.