Case-Shiller Shows More Record Home Price Declines in August

The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices set another record annual decline, with year-over-year annual declines of 17.7% (10-City Composite) and 16.6% (20-City Composite), respectively, through the end of August.

On the positive side, the acceleration of the decline in the U.S. housing market pricing was moderate in August, in relation to the July data, which showed annual declines of 17.5% and 16.3%, respectively (see related story here).

And only two major metro markets showed year-over-year gains—Cleveland and Boston. Cleveland returned 1.1% and Boston 0.1%, the fifth-consecutive positive month for Beantown. (See chart below.)

However, for the fifth consecutive month, each region reported annual declines, S&P noted in its monthly report.

Both the 10-City and 20-City composite indexes have experienced annual declines for 20 consecutive months. Thirteen of the 20 regions experienced increased declines in the annual period through the end of August, with the long-overheated Sunbelt market, not surprisingly, faring the worst.

Overbuilt and oversold Phoenix (-30.7%) and Las Vegas (-30.6%) showed declines of more than 30%, though they were far from alone in record declines: Nine of the 20 regions joined Phoenix and Las Vegas in this regard.

Each of the major metro California markets were down more than 25% on a year-over-year basis—Los Angeles (-26.7%); San Diego (-25.8%); and San Francisco (-27.3%). The major metro areas in the Florida housing market, Miami and Tampa Bay, were down 28.1% and 18.1%, respectively. Dallas and Charlotte showed the best annual performance, only down 2.7% and 2.8%, respectively.

In terms of the monthly data, Beantown's fifth-consecutive positive month was offset by the end of positive streaks in two major metro areas, Dallas and Denver.

After four consecutive months of positive returns, Denver was flat (0.0%) and Dallas fell 0.2%.

The largest monthly declines were in San Francisco (-3.5%), Phoenix (-2.9%) and Las Vegas (-2.4%).

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Comments

[sickofthehype:]

Median home prices have fallen, yes, but as everything else the numbers are skewed.

In Phoenix for instance, the suburban areas have been hit hard, really hard. Their drops outweigh the central and historic areas by a longshot, bringing the market stats down even when central and historic areas are being hit at just a fraction of those.

How about this stat:

Number of homes sold has INCREASED EVERY SINGLE MONTH THIS YEAR, from Jan to present, and inventory is still lower as well.

2008 Oct 28 11:56 AM

[Davmors:]

In California, Vulture Funds are doing most of the buying as reported by the realtor who sold my California house early last year.

2008 Oct 28 02:26 PM