Twin Cities housing values show 9 percent gain over 12 months

Twin Cities home prices rose about 9 percent over the year ending in February, the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reported Tuesday.

The broader S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index rose 13 percent over the same period.

Annual price gains cooled significantly in several major cities, and the more volatile month to month numbers showed weakness in the Twin Cities and other major metro areas, officials at S&P Dow Jones Indices said.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Index lags local home price reports by two months and uses a different approach to calculate price changes.

It's not yet clear if the weak local data reflect bad weather or a softening of the housing market, said Minnesota's state economist, Laura Kalambokidis,

"There's some data we're still waiting on to see if we're all the way through the weather risk part of the data series because the data lag," she said. "We're watching that, but there are still some pieces to the puzzle we don't have yet."