Texas home prices continued their strong performance in the September Case-Shiller, with prices rising monthly and yearly in the Dallas marketplace.

By Peter Ricci

Texas home prices continued their 2012 surge, with prices in Dallas rising 4.4 percent year-over-year in September in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s.

The Case-Shiller does not track home prices in Houston, but prices also rose monthly in Dallas, increasing 0.2 percent from August to September and defying the seasonal trends, which often cause home prices to declines in the wintry months.

Texas Home Prices – Matching National Home Prices

Texas home prices were consistent with that of the rest of the nation, which the Case-Shiller reported uniformly positive news:

• The national composite for the Case-Shiller was up 3.6 percent in 2012’s third quarter compared to 2011’s, and has risen 2.2 percent from 2012’s second quarter.
• The 10- and 20-City Composites, which collect prices from the nation’s largest metropolitan markets, were up 2.2 and 3.0 percent, respectively, with 17 of the cities posting yearly gains.
• Also, both composites were up by 0.3 percent from August to September, the sixth consecutive month of increasing home prices for both composites.

David M. Blitzer – “Housing Continues to Improve”

David M. Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, highlighted the numerous positives of the most recent Case-Shiller in his comments, and though he did highlight the traditional weakness of home prices at this time of the year, he said housing, on the whole, is improving.

“We are entering the seasonally weak part of the year,” Blitzer said. The headline figures, which are not seasonally adjusted, showed five cities with lower prices in September versus only one in August; in the seasonally adjusted data the pattern was reversed: one city fell in September versus two in August. Despite the seasons, housing continues to improve.”