Minneapolis lights up housing scene

For a region that looked like a real estate mutt for much of the last year or so, the Minneapolis area is suddenly on the upswing when it comes to the resale value of homes.

The latest Case Shiller housing price survey, released today for May, shows Minneapolis recorded a 3.1 percent increase in home prices over April in the seasonally unadjusted data. That’s the second-best April-to-May performance (last year’s 3.7% increase is the record) since Minneapolis was added to the data in the 1980s.

Over the course of the year, the Minneapolis area’s housing prices have increased 4.7%. That’s the best year-over-year increase since 2010.

Of course, it doesn’t make up for the 38 straight months of declining prices (compared to a year ago) the area recorded when the housing market collapsed, and the price index is still well off home resale prices of 2010.

CITY
ONE-YEAR CHANGE
ONE MONTH CHANGEE
Phoenix
11.5%
2.7%
Minneapolis
4.7%
3.1%
Dallas
3.8%
1.9%
Denver
3.7%
2.1%
Miami
3.4%
1.4%
Washington
2.8%
2.5%
Tampa
2.5%
2.0%
Charlotte
0.9%
1.0%
San Francisco
0.6%
3.9%
Seattle
0.6%
2.6%
Portland
0.4%
2.6%
Boston
-0.1%
2.4%
Cleveland
-0.1%
2.4%
Detroit
-0.6%
0.4%
San Diego
-1.1%
0.9%
Los Angeles
-2.0%
2.2%
New York
-2.8%
1.4%
Chicago
-3.0%
4.5%
Las Vegas
-3.2%
1.9%
Atlanta
-14.5%
4.0%

So is this it? Is the big rebound underway? Not everyone thinks so.

“Household formation is very much determined by economic circumstances,” Gary Shilling, a financial analyst, tells NPR . “And right now they’re very negative.”

Shilling usually takes the dim view of the housing market, pointing out that people still need jobs to buy houses and jobs are in short supply while the number of available houses isn’t.

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