Here is the latest read from the Case-Shiller Index. As expected it wasn’t pretty.
Home prices were down again for the 25th consecutive month.
From the TimesOnline by Suzy Jagger entitled: US house prices will fall 30% before upturn
“American house prices fell at their fastest rate on record in August as Wall Street braced itself for at least another year of real estate misery.
According to the S&P Case-Shiller US index – widely viewed as the most authoritative measure of American residential real estate values – house prices across the 20 US cities surveyed fell by 16.6 per cent in August compared with the same period the year before. Economists who were interpreting the data reckoned that house prices in August had slipped 1.1 per cent compared with July.
The numbers are grim reading. The pace of monthly decline has not slowed from July and none of the 20 cities has experienced a gain in house prices for five months. Many economists believe that the American housing slump is, at worst, half way through, and at best, left with another year to run before any glimmer of recovery will be seen.
Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said: “Prices have now fallen by 20.7 per cent from their May 2006 peak but are clearly nowhere near bottom yet. Expect a total fall of 30 per cent.”
Case-Shiller also calculates another house price survey where real estate values of 10 cities across the US are monitored, rather than 20. According to the narrower index, home prices fell even more sharply, plunging 17.7 per cent in August.
Houses in Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco suffered the biggest price falls, sliding between 25 per cent and 30 per cent in August compared with the same period last year.”
To read the full Case-Shiller report click here.
But if you don’t have the time to read it here’s the money shot. After all, a picture paints a thousand words.
Ouch.
