With home prices in major U.S. metropolitan areas rising more than expected on a monthly basis, Standard & Poor’s released a report on Tuesday showing a notable acceleration in the annual rate of home price growth in November.
The report said the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index was up by 5.8 percent year-over-year in November compared to the 5.5 percent annual growth reported in October. Economists had expected the pace of growth to accelerate to 5.7 percent.
The acceleration in the annual growth rate came as the 20-City Composite climbed 0.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis in November after rising 0.8 percent in October.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the index inched up by 0.1 percent in November, matching the uptick reported for the previous month.
“Home prices extended their gains, supported by continued low mortgage rates, tight supplies and an improving labor market,” said David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
He added, “Home prices continue to recover from the collapse that began before the recession of 2007-2009 and continued until 2012.”
Wednesday morning, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release a separate report on new home sales in the month of December.
Economists expect new home sales to rise to an annual rate of 500,000 in December from a rate of 490,000 in November.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com