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D.C. housing lagging behind other markets: It’s a good thing

WASHINGTON — The monthly S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index continues to show home values in the D.C. market are rising more slowly than most other big cities, but that could be interpreted as a sign of a healthy local market.

S&P says the median price of a home in the 20 largest cities in November was up 5.8 percent from a year earlier, the biggest annual gain since July 2014. In D.C., the annual gain as of November was 2.13 percent.

“Modest price growth in the Washington metro is actually a good sign that the housing market is in balance, as 2.13 percent price growth year-over-year isn’t much higher than inflation,” Trulia Inc. Chief Economist Ralph McLaughlin tells ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½. “In addition, job growth in Washington has been on par with national job growth, growing roughly 2.1 percent year-over-year.”

San Francisco, Denver and Portland continue to lead the nation in home price appreciation. Prices in those three cities in November were all up about 11 percent from a year earlier.

Among the 20 largest cities, only Chicago had a smaller annual increase in home prices than D.C., up 1.97 percent from a year earlier.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½ as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½ newsroom staff in January 2016.

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