D.C. home prices rise for 7th straight month

The Washington housing market took another step on the road to recovery in October as median prices rose for a seventh consecutive month, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index.

The October gain was a modest 0.2 percent compared to the national advance of 0.4 percent, but the cumulative effect of the Washington market's improvement helped it outperform most of the country in year-over-year comparisons. Median prices in the Washington market were just 2.8 percent lower in October than one year ago, while nationally prices fell 7.3 percent

Washington is among the few markets in the country to maintain steady improvement. San Francisco is the only other major city to post gains for seven months in a row. Minneapolis and San Diego have seen median home prices rise for six consecutive months, while Chicago broke its string of gains in October.

“The turnaround in home prices seen in the Spring and Summer has faded with only seven of the 20 cities seeing month-to-month gains, although all 20 continue to show improvements on a year-over-year basis," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s.

Las Vegas remains the most depressed market among big cities, where prices have declined for 38 consecutive months and are down more than 55 percent from their peak prices.

The S&P/Case-Shiller survey of 20 major U.S. cities uses the “repeat sales pricing technique” to measure housing markets. This methodology collects data on individual single-family home re-sales and uses the re-sold sale prices to calculate price declines or gains.