Chicago-area home prices fall for third straight month

A closely watched index of Chicago-area home prices fell again in November, its third straight drop and the biggest decline among a 20-city index.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index of Chicago-area single-family home prices fell 1.3 percent from October to November after dropping 1.6 percent from September to October and 0.6 percent from August to September, according to a report released this morning.

For the second straight month, Chicago posted the biggest decline in a 20-city index where prices fell. Prices rose in 10 cities and fell in 10 in November, according to the report.

The report notes that Chicago, along with Boston and New York, have fared the worst in monthly changes, with declines in more than six of the past 12 months.

Year over year, Chicago prices are up 0.8 percent, but that was the smallest increase of the 19 cities that showed a rise. New York prices fell 1.2 percent year-over-year, according to the report.

"The better annual price changes also point to seasonal weakness rather than a reversal in the housing market. Further evidence that the weakness is seasonal is seen in the seasonally adjusted figures: only New York saw prices fall on a seasonally adjusted basis while Cleveland was flat," David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement.

Chicago prices ticked up 0.1 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis.

In non-seasonally adjusted figures, the local index rose 0.7 percent from July to August after jumping 2.7 percent from June to July, 4.6 percent from May to June and 4.5 percent from April to May.

The 20-city composite price index dipped 0.1 percent from October to November but was up 5.5 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Chicago-area prices are down about 33 percent from their peak in September 2006, according to Case-Shiller data.