Miami continued to lead the pack in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

Home prices in the Miami metro area put up sterling numbers in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, rising 0.7 percent from November to December and 8.4 percent from Dec. 2013.

Not only was Miami’s monthly increase the largest in the nation, but its yearly increase was also the second-largest, second only behind San Francisco.

Modest Price Increases Nationwide

Nationwide, the situation was a modest (albeit positive) one:

• Both the 10- and 20-City Composites, which track most of the nation’s largest housing markets, rose 4.3 and 4.5 percent year-over-year, respectively; both increases are stronger than November’s yearly increases.
• Both composites were even positive monthly, rising 0.1 percent from November to December.
• Overall, nine cities saw higher monthly figures, compared with six seeing negative figures and five seeing flat numbers.

Blitzer – “Housing Recovery is Faltering”

David M. Blitzer, the managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that despite December’s price increases, other sectors of housing are showing clear weakness.

“The housing recovery is faltering,” Blitzer said. “While prices and sales of existing homes are close to normal, construction and new home sales remain weak. Before the current business cycle, any time housing starts were at their current level of about one million at annual rates, the economy was in a recession. The softness in housing is despite favorable conditions elsewhere in the economy: strong job growth, a declining unemployment rate, continued low interest rates and positive consumer confidence.”