U.S. home prices rose for a second month in June, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, which showed the strongest back-to-back monthly advance in the more than decade-long history of the price gauge.
The 20-city composite index registered a 2.3 advance in June, matching upwardly revised gains in May and taking the year-on-year move to positive territory for the first time in close to two years with a gain of 0.5 percent.
All 20 cities in the index managed monthly gains, including a 6-percent surge in hard-hit Detroit and a 4.8 advance in Minneapolis. Prices in the second quarter gained 6.9 percent compared with the first quarter. Milwaukee is not one of the 20 cities in the index.
“We seem to be witnessing exactly what we needed for a sustained recovery; monthly increases coupled with improving annual rates of change. The market may have finally turned around,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “In this month’s report all three composites and all 20 cities improved both in June and through the entire second quarter of 2012. All 20 cities and both monthly Composites rose for the second consecutive month. It would have been a third consecutive month had we not seen home prices fall in Detroit back in April.”
