US home prices continue to rise in November, though sales volume is slowing

Pricing finally climbed back to 2006 levels in September

In the face of rising interest rates, national home prices continued to show steady growth in November.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, which covers the whole country, show pricing climb 5.6 percent in the 12-month period ending in November, the Wall Street Journal reported.

That was up just a hair from the revised 5.5 percent increase from October.

Markets in the northwest such as Seattle and Portland as well as Denver continued to perform the best as buyers turn away from Silicon Valley for less pricey alternative tech hubs. Seattle showed the biggest increase with 10.4 percent.

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Home prices in September finally climbed back to the record set in mid-2006 before the recession, and have been moving upward since.

“One can argue that housing has recovered from the boom-bust cycle that began a dozen years ago,” David Blitzer, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices, told the newspaper.

Prices are climbing despite higher mortgage rates, which usually exert downward pressure as it makes the cost of borrowing more expensive. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage began to climb sharply after Election Day, increasing from around 3.5 percent to 4.32 percent at the end of December, according to Freddie Mac.

And the volume of sales has been slowing. New-home sales in December fell by 10.4 percent, according to the Commerce Department. [WSJ]Rich Bockmann