Case-Shiller Detects First Double-Digit Price Gain in 7 Years

In its first-quarter report, the ""CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes"":http://www.corelogic.com/products/case-shiller.aspx?WT.mc_id=prnw_130801_4JBntes.aspx experienced a double-digit national price gain for the first time since the housing bubble that took place seven years ago.

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Prices increased an average of 10.2 percent from the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year across the 380 metro markets tracked.

""Record levels of affordability, a slow improving job market, and very small inventories of new and existing homes for sale will continue to drive U.S. home price appreciation during the summer,"" said David Stiff, chief economist for CoreLogic Case-Shiller.

However, the economist does predict a slow-down in appreciation over the next year. From the first quarter of this year to the first quarter of next, the Case-Shiller Indexes predict a 6.5 percent price gain.

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Markets currently experiencing the greatest price appreciation are some of those that ""were at the center of the housing bubble,"" according to CoreLogic.

Several California markets are among the top markets for price gains over the past year.

San Jose, California, posted a 23.7 percent price gain; San Francisco posted a 21.1 percent price gain; and Sacramento, California, experienced a 21.0 percent price gain.

Phoenix, Arizona, and Las Vegas recorded price increases of 22.8 percent and 20.9 percent, respectively.

However, of these notable markets, San Francisco is the only one where price gains are expected to continue in the double digits over the next year. Case-Shiller predicts a 10.5 percent gain in the metro.

Additionally, Stiff staves off any concerns of growing bubbles, saying, ""there is less need for concern now since home prices remain 26 percent below their peak nationally and are even lower in many metro markets.""

The cause of many of the double-digit price increases across the country is low inventory. Phoenix, Sacramento, and Detroit all have just three months supply.

At the other end of the spectrum, a few metros did experience price declines over the year ending in March 2013, but ""it is likely that home prices in these cities will turn positive by the end of the year,"" Stiff said.

CoreLogice Case-Shiller Indexes rely on a combination of their own data along with information from the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Moody's Analytics.