WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. home prices rose solidly in June, another sign of health in the housing market.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5 percent from a year earlier, a slight improvement on May’s 4.9 percent increase, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Prices rose 10.2 percent in Denver, 9.5 percent in San Francisco and 8.2 percent in Dallas. Washington, D.C. ,posted the smallest gain, just 1.6 percent.
Strong sales have been lifting prices. The National Association of Realtors said last week that sales of existing homes rose 2 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.59 million, the fastest pace since February 2007. The Commerce Department reported last week that U.S. builders started work on single family homes in July at the fastest pace since late December 2007, the month the Great Recession began.
“The missing piece in the housing picture has been housing starts and sales,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Down Jones index committee. “These have changed for the better in the last few months.”