by Calculated Risk on 4/06/2015 12:40:00 PM

The Case-Shiller house price indexes for January were released last week. Zillow forecasts Case-Shiller a month early - now including the National Index - and I like to check the Zillow forecasts since they have been pretty close.

From Zillow: Expect More of the Same From Case-Shiller in Feb.

The January S&P/Case-Shiller (SPCS) data published yesterday showed healthy home price appreciation largely in line with prior months, with 4.5 percent annual growth in the U.S. National Index in January, down slightly from 4.6 percent annual growth in December.

Annual appreciation in home values as measured by SPCS has been less than 5 percent for the past five months. We anticipate this trend to continue, with next month’s (February) national index expected to rise 4.4 percent, in line with historically normal levels between 3 percent and 5 percent.

The 10- and 20-City Composite Indices both experienced modest bumps in annual growth rates in January; the 10-City index rose 4.4 percent and the 20-City Index rose to 4.6 percent–up from rates of 4.3 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively, in December. The non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) 10- and 20-City indices were flat from December to January, and we expect both to remain flat in February (NSA).

All forecasts are shown in the table below. These forecasts are based on the January SPCS data release and the February 2014 Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), released March 27. Officially, the SPCS Composite Home Price Indices for January will not be released until Tuesday, April 28.

So the year-over-year change in for February Case-Shiller index will probably be about the same as in the January report.

Zillow Case-Shiller Forecast
	Case-Shiller Composite 10		Case-Shiller Composite 20		Case-Shiller National
	NSA	SA	NSA	SA	NSA	SA
January Actual YoY	4.4%	4.4%	4.6%	4.6%	4.5%	4.5%
February Forecast YoY	4.4%	4.4%	4.6%	4.6%	4.4%	4.4%
February Forecast MoM	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.5%

From Zillow:

The Zillow Home Value Index rose 4.9 percent year-over-year in February, the first month of sub-5 percent annual appreciation since May 2013. Zillow data shows the annual home value appreciation rate has fallen every month since April, and we expect this slowdown to continue throughout 2015. The January Zillow Home Value Forecast calls for a 2.6 percent rise in home values through February 2016. Further details on our forecast of home values can be found here, and more on Zillow’s full January 2014 report can be found here.