Home prices in major U.S. metropolitan areas saw continued growth in the month of May, according to a report released by Standard & Poor's on Tuesday.
The report said the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index jumped by 2.4 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis in May compared to a revised 2.6 percent increase in April.
Economists had been expecting prices to increase by 2.0 percent compared to the 2.5 percent growth originally reported for the previous month.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the 20-City Composite Home Price Index rose by 1.0 percent in May following a 1.7 percent increase in April.
Compared to the same month a year ago, the 20-City Composite Home Price Index was up by 12.2 percent in May compared to expectations for 12.3 percent growth.
The annual rate of growth shown by the 20-City Composite Home Price Index for May reflected the strongest since March of 2006.
"Home prices continue to strengthen," said David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
He added, "Two cities set new highs, surpassing their pre-crisis levels and five cities - Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle - posted monthly gains of over three percent, also a first time event."
On Monday, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing a modest drop in pending home sales in the month of June.
NAR said its pending home sales index edged down 0.4 percent to 110.9 in June from a six-year high of 111.3 in May. Economists had been expecting the index to drop by about 1.4 percent.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, noted that mortgage rates began to rise in May, taking some of the momentum out of contract activity in June.
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