Home prices in the Chicago area posted their fifth consecutive month of improvement in July, but like the rest of the nation, the gains are slowing, according to the S&P/Case Shiller home price index released Tuesday.
Local home prices rose 0.6 percent in July, after a 1.5 percent increase in June. Prices are 4 percent higher than they were in July 2013, and on par with their pre-bubble level of May 2003.
Condo prices in the Chicago area were flat in July compared with June, but also up 4 percent from a year ago.
Chicago’s housing market recovery has trailed other areas and is experiencing the same slowdown in home price recovery. Of the 20 cities included in the index, 17 recorded smaller gains in July than in June. San Francisco, which had seen dramatic home price increases, saw prices slip 0.4 percent in July.
Nationally, home prices were up 5.6 percent year-over-year in July, and are back at their autumn 2004 levels.
“While the year-over-year figures are trending downward, home prices are still rising month-to-month although at a slower rate than what we are used to seeing over the past couple of years,” said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P Dow Jones Indices’ index committee.
Unlike the monthly home sales data released by the Illinois Association of Realtors, which uses raw sales data, the home price index is a three-month moving average of the changes in home prices over time.
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