U.S. Home Prices Continue To Show Strong Growth In March

(RTTNews) - Home prices in major U.S. metropolitan areas continued to show notable annual growth in the month of March, according to a report released by Standard & Poor's on Tuesday.

The report said the 20-City Composite Home Price Index rose 5.0 percent year-over-year in March, unchanged from the annual growth seen in February. Economists had expected the rate of growth to slow to 4.6 percent.

San Francisco and Denver continued to see the biggest year-over-year gains, with price increases of 10.3 percent and 10.0 percent, respectively.

S&P also said the index increased by a seasonally adjusted 1.0 percent on a monthly basis in March following a revised 1.2 percent jump in February. Economists had expected a 0.9 percent increase.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the 20-City Composite Home Price Index rose by 0.9 percent in March after climbing by 0.5 percent in the previous month.

"Home prices have enjoyed year-over-year gains for 35 consecutive months," said David M. Blitzer, Managing Director & Chairman of the Index Committee for S&P Dow Jones Indices.

"Given the long stretch of strong reports, it is no surprise that people are asking if we're in a new home price bubble," he added. "The only way you can be sure of a bubble is looking back after it's over."

Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency said U.S. home prices rose by less than expected in March.

The FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 0.3 percent from February, while economists had expected a 0.7 percent increase.