Twin Cities home prices continue to climb

Sold
A sold sign adorns the front yard of a St. Paul home.
MPR File Photo/Laura Gill

Twin Cities home prices continued to rise in August according to a prominent gauge of the housing market.

New numbers from the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller Home Price Index indicate metro-area home prices jumped 7.4 percent in August, compared with the same month a year ago. The index aims to track the value of typical single-family homes.

The Twin Cities market has now seen accelerating year-over-year price gains every month since February. Prices are the highest they've been since the summer of 2010, when sales got a boost from tax credits offered to first-time home buyers.

S&P's Maureen Maitland said Minnesota is part of national rebound in the housing sector.

"Home prices seem to be in recovery mode," Maitland said. "Most of the data has been positive, not only for home prices but in terms of housing starts, existing home sales. We seem to be in a turn-around."

A composite index of 20 large markets across the country showed prices were up 2 percent in August, compared with the same month a year ago. Seventeen of the 20 markets saw annual price increases. But prices remain far below peaks hit in 2006.