Home prices in metro Atlanta were up yet again in March – both on an annual and monthly basis—as the region’s housing recovery continues to show strength.
The closely-watched S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices reported on Tuesday home prices in the metro area were up 19.1 percent over March 2012 and up 1.3 percent compared to February of this year.
Nationally, home prices were up 10.2 percent compared to March a year-ago. Values gained 1.2 percent over this past February's report.
“Home prices continued to climb,” David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a news release. “Home prices in all 20 cities posted annual gains for the third month in a row.”
Phoenix led the top 20 cities with an annual increase of 22.5 percent, followed by San Francisco (22.2 percent) and Las Vegas (20.6 percent) and then Atlanta, according to the report.
“Other housing market data reported in recent weeks confirm these strong trends: housing starts and permits, sales of new home and existing homes continue to trend higher,” Blitzer said. “At the same time, the larger than usual share of multi-family housing, a large number of homes still in some stage of foreclosure and buying-to-rent by investors suggest that the housing recovery is not complete.”
Home prices nationally have returned to mid-2003 levels, though metro Atlanta's prices remain below January 2000 values.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 200 points as of 10 a.m., according to Yahoo! Finance.
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