All composites of the S & P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed double-digit improvement in the first quarter of 2013 over the year before, returning home prices to their mid-2003 levels. Compared with the first quarter of 2012, the 10-city and 20-city composites rose 10.3 percent and 10.9 percent respectively, and the national composite rose 10.2 percent.
On a monthly basis, both the 10- and 20-city composites posted 1.4 percent increases.
"Home prices in all 20 cities posted annual gains for the third month in a row. Twelve of the 20 saw prices rise at double-digit annual growth. The National Index and the 10- and 20-City Composites posted their highest annual returns since 2006," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S & P Dow Jones Indices, in a statement. "At the same time, the larger than usual share of multi-family housing, a large number of homes still in some stage of foreclosure and buying-to-rent by investors suggest that the housing recovery is not complete