S&P Dow Jones Indices released the Home Price Index for February. House prices surpassed the pre-recession peak of 2006 and hit the highest level with a more moderate annual growth rate.

The Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index rose at a seasonally adjusted annual growth rate of 5.2% in February, slower than the previous six months. House price appreciation reached 9.0% in November 2016, the highest level since October 2013, and was slowing down moderately from 9.0% to 5.2% in the past three months.

Figure 2 shows the annual growth rate of home prices for 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas. In February local home price gains continued.

All of the 20 metro areas had positive home price appreciation, ranged from 0.6% to 25.3%. Of all, Seattle had the highest home price appreciation of 25.3%, followed by Dallas (16.1%) and Chicago (13.1%). Tampa had the lowest home price appreciation of 0.6% and it was the only one that had the lower home price appreciation than the national level of 5.2%.

Tags: hoem prices, S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index