Seattle home prices inch up in March from February

Seattle was one of only six major metro areas to record gains in home prices in March, according to a closely watched gauge of the nation's wobbly housing market.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed that house prices in Seattle edged up 0.1 percent from February. That compared with a 0.5 percent drop in the overall index, which tracks home sales in 20 cities nationwide.

The March figures, which showed declines in 13 cities (Boston was essentially flat), indicated continued weakness in the housing market despite historically low mortgage rates and now-expired tax credits.

Detroit and Minneapolis saw the largest monthly declines at 4.1 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. Cleveland enjoyed the biggest gain at 1.8 percent.

The numbers are especially disturbing because they show that improved sales due to the tax credits didn't translate into higher prices, said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee.

"When you look at recent trends, there are signs of renewed weakening in home prices," he said in a statement.

The overall index was still 2.3 percent higher in March than it was a year earlier. But recent declines raise the worrisome possibility that many local markets have yet to find their bottoms.

Half of the 20 cities in the Case-Shiller index posted year-over-year price increases; half, including Seattle, showed declines.

In Seattle, home prices were down 3.6 percent from March 2009. Since the housing market here peaked in July 2007, the local Case-Shiller index has fallen 25.3 percent, compared with a 30.6 decline from the peak in the 20-city index.

Information from Seattle Times business reporter Drew DeSilver and The Associated Press is included in this report.