Get Blog Updates on your iGoogle homepage:
| S&P Case-Shiller Indices Show Record Annual Declines |
| Written by Jonathan Smoke | |
| 07.29.2008 | |
Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)  We can’t ignore the biggest news of the day on housing. Standard & Poor’s released the May 2008 S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. The press release summarized the new readings by reporting that for the second straight month, all 20 MSAs posted annual declines, nine of which are posting record lows and 10 of which are in double-digits. Both the 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite are reporting record low annual declines.Looking at the 10 and 20-city composites, while hitting new record lows, the rate of the monthly declines decreased. Of the 20 cities covered, all were down relative to one year ago. But seven cities reported gains over April: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis and Portland. Two cities, Charlotte and Dallas, have a three-month upward streak. Boston, Denver and Portland have recorded two straight months of increases. As I have indicated before, the methodology that is used to calculate these indices is likely to be giving greater weight to sales of foreclosed homes in their calculations, so these readings are the most negative we will see. Furthermore, since the 20 cities covered feature the poster children of the housing boom, they cast as negative a picture as possible on the “national housing market” scene. So with all of that in mind, today’s report on May’s home prices does not indicate that things are getting worse now. 
We're always looking for feedback from our readers.
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
