By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times –
Home prices in the nation’s largest cities rose from July to August, according to a closely watched index, adding to a turnaround in housing this year.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of 20 American cities, a key measure that is closely watched by economists, rose 0.9 percent from July to August and 2 percent from August 2011.
Nineteen of the 20 cities posted positive monthly gains in August.
“Home prices continued climbing across the country in August,” David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, said in a release announcing the new data Tuesday.
The Phoenix metro area is leading the home price recovery, with home prices there up 18.8 percent from August 2011.
Atlanta continued to lag the recovery, down 6.1 percent year-over-year. Chicago was down 1.6 percent and New York 2.3 percent.