Housing Market Experiences First Growth in 4 Months

* Synced from the Seattle and Real Estate Blog
Bucking the national trend that saw home prices stay relatively flat from January to February, The Seattle Times reports that the Seattle-area market saw prices rise ever so slightly in February, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city Index. In the biggest monthly gain since July 2013, the average price of a home in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties rose by a whopping, wait for it…0.6 percent. While that may seem like a small number, annual gains tell a different story, showing prices rising 12.8 percent over the previous 12 months. However, we have 17.3 more percentage points to go to catch up with the market’s peak in July 2007.
Along with Seattle, Portland and San Diego round out the top three cities with the strongest price gains in February. Surprisingly, San Francisco appeared to show slowing monthly price growth, though its prices were up 23 percent from same time last year.
Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, stated in the article that although the national housing market is showing signs of slowing in recent months, it is just a snapshot of a market that is slowly returning to normal. Nationally, prices rose by 12.9 percent from February 2013 to February 2014. The National Association of Realtors also reported that the number of pending home sales rose in March for the first time in nine months.