Seattle area home prices continue to climb

There’s more hopeful news on the economic front as home prices in the Seattle metropolitan area continue climbing, rising 3.4 percent in August over the same month last year.

It’s the fourth straight monthly increase year-over-year and the largest since the housing market collapsed five years ago, according to the closely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index.

Seattle was the only one of 20 cities tracked to see prices slip between July and August, albeit just 0.1 percent after five straight month-over-month gains.

Seattle’s increase was the 10th-largest of the cities tracked by the index. Year-over-year prices were up 18.8 percent in Phoenix, 7.6 percent in Detroit and 6.7 percent in Miami. Prices dropped in Atlanta, New York, and Chicago.

“The sustained good news in home prices over the past five months makes us optimistic for continued recovery in the housing market,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the Case-Shiller Index. “Even as we end the seasonally strong home buying period, the statistics are positive.”

The Seattle metropolitan area includes King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. Indexes for all 20 cities were released Tuesday. The August numbers are the most recent ones available.

“The sustained good news in home prices over the past five months makes us optimistic for continued recovery in the housing market,” said Blitzer. “Even as we end the seasonally strong home buying period, the statistics are positive.”

The Seattle Times reports the Seattle area’s Case-Shiller score for August was 141.69, meaning prices were 41.69 percent higher than in January 2000. The metropolitan area’s all-time high, 192.30, came in July 2007, while the lowest score since the economic downturn came in February, falling to 128.99.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.