Seattle-area house prices bounced back in November after slipping the month before, according to the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
According to a report, prices rose 0.5 percent between October and November, after dropping 0.2 percent between September and October.
David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indexes, attributed the month-over-month drop to seasonal factors rather than any fundamental market shift.
"Housing is clearly recovering," Blitzer said in a statement. "Prices are rising as are both new and existing- home sales. Existing-home sales in November were 5 million, highest since November 2009. New-home sales at 398,000 were the highest since June 2010.
"These figures confirm that housing is contributing to economic growth."
Meanwhile, the average rent in the area is 74 percent of the cost to own, commercial real estate information company CoStar Group says. That's up from a historical level of 55 percent and a "tipping point" of 60 percent.
The numbers are for the Seattle metropolitan area: King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. The November statistics, the most recent available, were released Tuesday.
