The latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price report shows that home prices in the U.S. continued to decline at a record pace through July 2008. Prices in the report's 10-city composite index declined 17.5% from year-ago levels, while the 20-city index fell by 16.3%. Despite the record declines, the authors note that the pace of decline has slowed.
"There are signs of a slow down in the rate of decline across the metro areas, but no evidence of a bottom" says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's. "Little positive news can be found when cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix report annual declines as large as -29.9% and -29.3%, respectively, and all 20 cities are still in negative territory on a year-over-year basis. The Sunbelt continues to be the story, with the seven cities that basically represent that area reporting annual declines roughly between 20 and 30%. While some cities did show some marginal improvement over last month's data, there is still very little evidence of any particular region experiencing an absolute turnaround."
Las Vegas remains the weakest market, reporting an annual decline of 29.9%, followed by Phoenix and Miami at -29.3% and -28.2%, respectively. Atlanta, Dallas, Minneapolis and Tampa showed improvements in their annual and monthly returns, but all four are still too close to their recent lows to determine if the markets have stabilized. While their annual returns are negative, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis all reported positive returns for the three months or more.
To view specific data on the metropolitan areas covered in the report, go to: http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/index/CSHomePrice_Release_093042.pdf
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