What is the Case-Shiller home price index?

Case-Shiller Home Price Index: National is at a current level of 316.58, up from 315.30 last month and up from 297.56 one year ago. This is a change of 0.41% from last month and 6.39% from one year ago. The Case-Shiller National Home Price Index is a composite index of the single-family residential real estate values in 9 US Census divisions.

What is a Case-Shiller index?

The Case-Shiller is based on the repeat-sales pricing technique developed by the economists for whom the index is named. The national Case-Shiller index is supplemented by composite indexes tracking prices in 10 and 20 key U.S. metro areas, as well as indexes tracking sales based on the home's price relative to the market average.

Can new homes be included in a Case-Shiller index?

That means new homes must be bought and then resold before their prices can be included in the Case-Shiller sample. Case-Shiller indexes track so-called arms-length sale transactions: those where the sale price reflects market value because the buyer and seller were each acting solely in their own best interest.