Home prices rise in most U.S. cities, including Miami
Miami Herald Staff and Wire Report
U.S. home prices rose for the third straight month in August, data released Tuesday showed, a key sign for a broad and sustained housing recovery.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities climbed 1 percent from July to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.5. While prices are down 11.4 percent from August a year ago, the annual declines have slowed since February.
In Miami, the price index rose 1.1 percent.
Prices are at levels not seen since August 2003 and have fallen almost 30 percent from the peak in May 2006.
``All the speculative price increase that occurred between 2003 and 2005 has disappeared,'' said David Dabby, a Coral Gables-based real estate analyst. ``We are basically back to 2001 or 2002 levels, which were economically justified.''
The latest national index shows a widespread turnaround, with prices rising month-over-month in 15 metro areas since June.
But a backlog of foreclosures and double-digit unemployment, could keep housing prices relatively flat for months to come, experts said.
Another unknown is whether a temporary federal tax credit for first-time buyers will be extended to help boost sales.
First-time home buyers can receive a credit of 10 percent of the sales price, up to $8,000. The real estate industry is lobbying Congress to extend the credit past the Nov. 30 deadline. Top Democrats in the Senate are pressing a plan that would prolong the credit but gradually phase it out over the next year.
Ken H. Johnson, a professor of real estate and finance at Florida International University, has been renting since he moved to South Florida in 2005. His first reaction to Tuesday's news was, ``I wonder if it's time to buy.''
While he is ``guardedly optimistic'' that the market has found its bottom, he said it's simply too soon to tell.
``If I could predict where the market would go, I would own an island and its name is Australia,'' he said. ``But my gut feeling is that we are near the bottom.''
Not all metropolitan areas posted gains in August, though. Prices in Las Vegas, Seattle and Charlotte, N.C., all fell to their lowest levels in August. Prices in Las Vegas have plunged by 56 percent since peaking in April 2006, the largest peak-to-trough decline of all 20 cities.
Miami Herald business writer Jim Wyss contributed to this report, which was supplemented with material from the Associated Press.
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