Having eked out a 0.6 percent gain in February, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index for single-family home values within the San Francisco Metropolitan Area (which includes the East Bay, North Bay and Peninsula) ticked up 2.1 percent in March. That being said, the index is still down 1.7 percent since the third quarter of 2018 and its year-over-year gain has dropped to 1.4 percent, which is the second smallest year-over-year return for the index, behind a downwardly revised 1.3 percent return in February, since the second quarter of 2012.

While the index for the bottom third of the Bay Area market ticked up 1.3 percent in March, its year-over-year gain dropped from 3.1 to 2.5 percent (versus a year-over-year gain of 11.6 percent at the same time last year). While the index for the middle third of the market ticked up 1.8 percent in March, its year-over-year gain dropped to 1.4 percent (its smallest year-over-year gain since the second quarter of 2012 and versus a year-over-year gain of 11.7 percent at the same time last year). And while the index for the top third of the market ticked up 2.8 percent in March, its year-over-year gain dropped to 1.0 percent versus a 10.8 percent gain on a year-over-year basis at the same time last year.

At the same time, while the index for Bay Area condo values ticked up 2.0 percent in March, it’s down 3.2 percent since the second quarter of last year and down 0.4 percent versus the same time last year, representing the first year-over-year drop for the index since the second quarter of 2012.

As we first noted in the third quarter of last year, Las Vegas is still leading the nation in terms of home price gains, up 8.2 percent on a year-over-year basis, versus a national average of 3.7 percent, followed by Phoenix (up 6.1 percent) and Tampa (up 5.3 percent).

And at 1.4 percent, San Francisco ranked second to last in terms of year-over-year gains in value across the county, outperforming San Diego and Los Angeles which both recorded gains of 1.3 percent.

Our standard SocketSite S&P/Case-Shiller footnote: The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices include San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda in the “San Francisco” index (i.e., greater MSA) and are imperfect in factoring out changes in property values due to improvements versus appreciation (although they try their best).