The housing market has been slightly uplifted in recent weeks with positive news from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors about increases in new and existing home sales. But don't start celebrating yet. Prices of existing homes in August continue to show broad declines across the country, according to the latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released on Tuesday.
The 20-city housing index dropped a record 16.6 percent from August last year, the largest drop since its inception in 2000. Case-Shiller's 10-city index also plunged 17.7 percent, the biggest drop in its 21-year history. Both indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 20 consecutive months, according to the report. Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted more than 20 percent since peaking in July 2006. For the fifth straight month, no city in the Case-Shiller 20-city index saw annual price gains.
Regional trends
The report, however, wasn't all gloom and doom. The pace of monthly declines did moderate last month from July, and Boston and Cleveland showed monthly gains from July to August. Boston, the first city to post price declines in the 20-city index starting in October 2005, has recorded five straight monthly gains in home values.
In contrast, Dallas and Denver both showed negative returns in August after four consecutive months of increases.
As seen throughout 2008, the Sun Belt markets are being hit the hardest with home depreciations. Phoenix and Las Vegas are both reporting annual declines in excess of 30 percent, and Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego are all in excess of 25 percent. Miami and Tampa, the two Florida markets, are down 28.1 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively. Nine of the 20 regions have record annual declines.
Price declines in the 20-city index
1. Phoenix, -30.7%
2. Las Vegas, -30.6%
3. Miami, -28.1%
4. San Francisco, -27.3%
5. Los Angeles, -26.7%
6. San Diego, -25.8%
7. Tampa, -18.1%
8. Detroit, -17.2%
9. Washington, -15.4%
10. Minneapolis, -13.8%
11. Chicago, -9.8%
12. Seattle, -8.8%
13. Atlanta, -8.5%
14. Portland, -7.6%
15. New York, -6.9%
16. Cleveland, -6.6%
17. Denver, -5.1%
18. Boston, -4.7%
19. Charlotte, -2.8%
20. Dallas, -2.7%
Source: Standard & Poor's and Fiserv (data through August 2008)
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