Twin Cities home prices continue to rise
Home prices in the Twin Cities metro area rose one percent from February to March, according to the latest figures from the Standard & Poors-Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
Compared to March of last year, housing prices in the Twin Cities are up 11.5 percent, slightly higher than the national average.
Price increases are slowing because of other economic factors, said David Blitzer, managing director of S&P's index committee.
"[An] eleven percent annual increase in home prices is not sustainable when the inflation is around 1.5 percent," Blitzer said. "If we kept that up for two or three years, none of us could afford to buy a house."
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According to the index, Twin Cities home prices have increased 30 percent since the low in March of 2011.
But Blitzer said another housing bubble in the area is not likely mainly because of tighter lending standards.
In most places, he said, home price increases are slowing because many people still can't afford to buy.
"The unemployment rate has come down substantially from its peaks, but it is still at least two percentage points higher than it should be or we'd like to see it, and that's clearly a factor," Blitzer said.