Index Shows Increase in Housing Prices

Index Shows Increase in Housing Prices
Photo by Kevin Shorter. Courtesy of Flickr
Index Shows Increase in Housing Prices
Photo by Kevin Shorter. Courtesy of Flickr

Index Shows Increase in Housing Prices

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Home prices in Chicago are up a bit.

According to the monthly S&P/Case-Shiller index, July’s prices were up one percentage point over June.

Geoffrey Hewings is an economics professor at the University of Illinois.

He says even that incremental increase in home prices probably won’t continue.

HEWINGS: A lot of people who say sitting on the fence, and thinking ‘well sometime this year if things look good, maybe I’ll sell my house’ I think they’re back on the fence. 

Hewings says there are few buyers and a lot of unsold properties on the market.

He points to a slow decrease in foreclosure rates as a particular obstacle to home prices.

Chicago is one of 12 out of 20 metropolitan areas showing growth in housing prices.