Winter Season Still a Drag on House Prices

House prices edged up 0.3% from January to February on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to the S&P Case-Shiller 20-city house price index.

Standard & Poor’s reported Tuesday morning that its HPI is up 9.3% from a year ago.

The Case-Shiller 20-city HPI recorded its highest annual growth rate since May 2006, according to David Blitzer, who chairs S&P’s index committee.

All 20 cities show positive annual price gains—even New York, which is up a mere 1.9% from February 2012.

However, some cities have experienced slippage in house prices in January and February, which is not unusual in winter months. Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Seattle and Washington, D.C., posted back-to-back monthly declines.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, “all 20 cities saw higher prices for two months in row—the last time that happened was in early 2005,” Blitzer said.

The 20-city HPI rose 1.2% from January to February on a seasonally adjusted basis.