San Diego Home Prices Surge 5.8% Over Past Year

SAN DIEGO - Home prices in San Diego rose by just 0.1 percent between July and August, and 5.8 percent since August last year, according to the Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices that were released Tuesday.

The monthly increase was tied for the lowest among the 20 large real estate markets tracked by S&P.

The indices were created by taking the cost of housing in those cities in January 2000, assigning them a value of 100, and tracking their subsequent rise and fall.

In August, San Diego's index stood at 227.86, reflecting a more than doubling of prices in 17 years. The climb is the third-fastest in the U.S., behind only Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"Supported by continued moderate economic growth, home prices extended recent gains," said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "All 20 cities saw prices higher than a year earlier with 10 enjoying larger annual gains than last month."

Blitzer said other housing data -- including sales of existing single family homes, measures of housing affordability, and permits for new construction -- also point to a reasonably healthy housing market.

The markets with the highest growth rates in August were Portland and Seattle, both over 11 percent, S&P reported.

- City News Service / Image via Patch