U.S. Home Prices Drop 11.4% in January
March 25th, 2008Via: AP:
A widely-watched index of U.S. home prices fell 11.4 percent in January, its steepest drop since data for the indicator was first collected in 1987.
The decline reported Tuesday in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index means prices have been growing more slowly or dropping for 19 consecutive months.
The index tracks the prices of single-family homes in 10 major metropolitan areas in the U.S.
The broader 20-city composite index also fell, dropping 10.7 percent in January from a year ago. That makes it the first time both indexes dropped by double-digit percentages.
“Home prices continue to fall, decelerate and reach record lows across the nation,” said David Blitzer, index committee chairman at S&P. “No markets seem to be completely immune from the housing crisis.”
Blitzer said all 20 cities S&P tracks have seen dropping prices for five consecutive months. What’s more, the declines are growing in severity, with 13 of the 20 cities reporting their biggest single monthly decline in January.
The worst performing markets are Las Vegas and Miami, which tied for worst off as they both reported 19.3 percent drops.
Charlotte, N.C., squeaked by as the only gainer, with a 1.8 percent rise in January.
it would be interesting to plot this index on a chart and apply technical analysis techniques to it.
Not 2 days ago the corporatist vampire
sycophant’s at ABC radio news (probably all the rest too) were all but ecstatically proclaiming
“We are at the real estate bottom,buy now prices are done sinking”.
It was a bold faced plea for a new infusion of sucker’s IMHO.
One thing to remember, about real estate agents in particular, is that they cannot afford to focus on the negative because of the psychological effect on themselves. In order to survive at all in their given market, or any high ticket sales, they must continuously be moving forward… like a shark. To do otherwise would be the kiss of death.