The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price index which was published today shows that Seattle and Atlanta tied for the third best monthly increases (1.6%) of the 20 metropolitan markets used in their 20-City Composite Index. Washington DC and San Francisco were the only two other cities with more of an increase with a 3.0% and 1.7% April-over-March change. The table below shows the results for April 2011. The overall national statistics are not so good with some markets like Detroit and Chicago still dropping dramatically. Washington DC is the only market where you see a strong trend of 4.0% increase over the last year. But this still represents the first month-over-month increase using this index in 8 months.
This is by no means enough data to call it a trend. Still, with all the negative economic data on the news these days, I thought it was worth pointing out this ray of hope for our own local market. Let's see if it lasts, and hopefully accelerates.