Salt Lake City's home prices expected to rise 3.3% by 2013

The year has brought a positive outlook to the housing market and continued success is predicted. For Salt Lake City, a rise to 3.3 percent is expected by early 2013, according to a recent Fiserv Case-Shiller Index.

Out of the 384 metropolitan areas surveyed, 151 have increased from last year, according to the report.

Though Fiserv Case-Shiller predicts a 5 percent increase across the nation in the first quarters of 2013 and 2014, the next 12 months the report predicts a 1 percent decline.

Factors like the crisis in Europe or political impasse in Washington D.C., could create another setback for the housing market, according to David Stiff, chief economist for Fiserv Case-Shiller.

"However, given that owner-occupied housing is incredibly cheap historically and falling confidence would be accompanied by lower mortgage interests rates, we may be at a point where housing markets can finally withstand a weak economy," he said.

Fiserv Case-Shiller Index has monitored and predicted change in the housing market since the 1980s. The company studies single-family properties and repeat sales for its calculations.

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