Last week, the S&P/Case-Shiller Index showed home prices gaining 8.1 percent during the 12-month period ending January 2013, marking the largest year-over-year increases since the summer of 2006. The Case-Shiller Index measures changes in home prices by tracking same-home sales throughout 20 housing markets nationwide; and the change in sales price from sale-to-sale. Detached, single-family residences are used in the Case-Shiller Index methodology and data is for closed purchase transactions only. All 20 Case Shiller Index Markets Show Growth Between December 2012 and January 2013, home values rose in all 20 Case-Shiller Index markets, with previously-hard hit areas such as Phoenix, Arizona leading the national price recovery. Another notable gainer was New York, which posted the first year-over-year increase following 28 straight months of negative annual returns. The top three yearly “gainers” for as of January 2013 were:
- Phoenix, Arizona : +23.2 percent
- San Francisco, California : +17.5 percent
- Las Vegas, Nevada : +15.3 Percent