For the first time in two years, all three composites in the June Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor's were positive.

All three composites of the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices ended 2012’s second quarter with positive annual growth rates, the first time that’s happened since the summer of 2010, according to the latest data from Standard & Poor’s.

Though S&P does not track home prices in Houston, it does follow the Dallas market, and there prices were up a strong 3.7 percent from June 2011 after increasing 3.8 percent the month before, continuing the Lone Star State’s strong 2012 housing performance.

June Case-Shiller Home Price Indices

Overall, the data was uniformly promising:

• The overall national composite for the second quarter was up 1.2 percent year-over-year and 6.9 percent from the first quarter, while the 10- and 20-City Case-Shiller Composites posted increases of 5.8 percent and 6.0 percent from the first quarter.
• The 10- and 20-City Composites also increased annually by 0.1 and 0.5 percent and monthly by 2.2 and 2.3 percent, respectively.
• All 20 cities tracked by S&P showed positive monthly gains for the second consecutive month, and 18 of the 20 had better annual returns in June than in May.

Positive Home Price Trend

David M. Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, was surprisingly positive with the data. Though far from bearish, Blitzer has consistently sprinkled his 2012 reports with cautious optimism, but with June’s Case-Shiller, he offered no such reservations.

“We are aware that we are in the middle of a seasonal buying period,” Blitzer said, “but the combined positive news coming from both monthly and annual rates of change in home prices bode well for the housing market.”

As of the second quarter of 2012, average U.S. home prices as measured by the the national composite are back to early 2003 levels.