Home prices sliding down
NEW YORK – today’s S&P home price index for data through January shows a 3.1% decline from prices in January 2010 marking the seventh month in a row of declining prices. S&P/Case-Schiller measures two home price indices- a 10 city composite and a 20 city composite, revealing a decline in all but two hot spots.
Overall, the S&P home price index has been set back to values not seen since 2003. San Diego and Washington, D.C. posted slight increases in home values over the year, rising 3.6% and 0.1% respectively.
Comparing all 20 cities
Double dipping?
“Keeping with the trends set in late 2010, January brings us weakening home prices with no real hope in sight for the near future” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “With this month’s data, we find the same 11 MSAs posting new recent index lows. The 10-City and 20-City Composites continue to decline month-over-month and have posted monthly declines for six consecutive months now.”
Blitzer continued, “These data confirm what we have seen with recent housing starts and sales reports. The housing market recession is not yet over, and none of the statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery. At most, we have seen all statistics bounce along their troughs; at worst, the feared double-dip recession may be
materializing. A few months ago we defined a double-dip for home prices as seeing the 10- and 20-City Composites set new post-peak lows. The 10-City Composite is still 2.8% above and the 20-City is 1.1% above their respective April 2009 lows, but both series have moved closer to a confirmed double-dip for six consecutive months. At this point we are not too far off, and that is what many analysts are seeing with sales, starts and inventory data too.”
