Will Chicago home prices ever again reach the heights of 2006?

Oh 2006, where art thou?

While home prices across the nation are on average 13 percent higher than their post-boom peak years in the early 2000s, the price of Chicago homes has not recovered since its high-point in 2006, according to Crain’s.

In fact, Chicago’s home values are 12 percent less than they were that year, only reaching about where they were in 2004, according to data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

This is not good for homeowners, Craig Lazzara of S&P Dow Jones Indices told Crain’s. In situations like this, homeowners are less likely to sell their homes, buy new ones or invest in improvements, he said.

A second quarter report from the Illinois Association of Realtors stated there was a 6 percent year-over-year decrease in home sales during April. There was, however, a 1.2 percent year-over-year increase in sales price, indicating home value may slowly be on the rise.

The overall trend, Lazzara told Crain’s, is reflective of an underfunded pension system, a perceived crime issue and a decreasing population, factors that lead to a decrease in homeownership demand. [Crain’s] — Kelsey Neubauer