Everyone quotes the Case Schiller Index as Gospel about declining home prices. It isn't. First of all, the Case Schiller index is quoting March's average sales price numbers as opposed to the most recent data in April! It really isn't worth mentioning it. Can you spell "O-L-D----D-A-T-A?" A month is a major lag time in this economy. The most recent case Schiller Index for Atlanta (5/26/2009) quotes the average sales price for Atlanta homes sold in Atlanta as an average of metro prices have fallen-15.7% percent year-to-year. However, these are an average of all housing types. There are major differences in sales between classes of homes...single family and detached. Detached single family homes represent the largest segment of homes sold.
Our FMLS statistics were just released for April 2009 home sales, and they paint a slightly different picture. Even though the average price has jumped 10K higher than March 2009 sales..the trend is unmistakeably down in price over 20% from last year. Where most persons look at is price, but the number of homes sold in referenced to previous periods, the number of homes sold in way off, and I will address in a future post.
Where Case Schiller focuses on an average decline in prices of all housing and quotes a 15.7% drop in value for month old data the reality is worse at 20% drop in value.
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