Further Deterioration in Home Price Gains -Case-Shiller

Is the party officially over?  </p

S&P Dow Jones Indices said today thatrnthe increase in home prices, which has shown diminishing energy for months,rnexperienced a broad-based slowdown in September.  The company’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indicesrncontinued to show gains over the levels of a year earlier, but the size ofrnthose gains continued to contract.</p

The Case-Shiller National Index rose 4.8rnpercent from September 2013 to September 2014 while the 10-City Compositernposted a 4.8 percent increase compared to September 2013 and the 20-City was uprn4.9 percent.  The respective year-over-yearrngains for the two Composites in August were 5.5 and 5.6 percent.  Charlotte and Dallas were the only cities tornsee stronger annual gains in September than in August while Cleveland wasrnunchanged.  </p

</p

Both city indexes declined marginally fromrntheir August levels while the National Index was down 0.1 percent compared to thernprevious month.  Nine cities postedrnmonthly increases, nine saw their price levels fall and two werernunchanged.  The largest month-over-monthrnchange was in Washington, D.C. with a drop of 0.4 percent.</p

David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of thernIndex Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indies said that overall trend in homernprices continues lower.   “The National Index reported a month-over-month decrease for the first timernsince November 2013. The Northeast regionrnreported its first negative monthly returns since December 2013 and its worstrnannual returns since December 2012rndue to weaknesses in Washington D.C. and Boston. The West and Southwest, previously strongrnregions, are seeing price gains fade. The only region showingrnany sustained strength is the Southeast led by Florida;rnprice gains are also evident in Atlanta andrnCharlotte.</p

Among individual cities Blitzer saidrnthat Las Vegas, which has shown double-rndigit annual gains, posted an annual return of 9.1%, its first time below 10%rnsince October 2012 but Miami “continuesrnto impress with another double digit annual gain of 10.3%. It is the only cityrnthat currently has a year-over-year double digit gain. Charlotte was the onlyrncity in September to show an annualrnincrease relative to last month. Eighteen of the 20 cities reported slowerrnannual gains compared to last month.</p

“Other housing statistics paint a mixedrnto slightly positive picture. Housing starts held above one million at annual rates on gains in single family homes,rnsales of existing homes are gaining, builders’rnsentiment is improving, foreclosures continue to be worked off and mortgagerndefault rates are at pre- crisisrnlevels. With the economy looking better than a year ago, the housing outlookrnfor 2015 is stable to slightly better.”</p

</p

As of September average home pricesrnacross the U.S. are back to the levels of the spring of 2005.  Average home prices for the metropolitan statisticalrnareas (MSAs) in the 10-City and 20-City Composites are back to their levels inrnthe autumn of 2004.  Measured from theirrnJune/July 2006 peaks, the decline for the two Composites is about 15-17 percent.  The 10-City has recovered from the March 2012rntrough by 28.8 percent and the 20-City by 29.6 percent.</p

The Case-Shiller indices arernconstructed to track the price path of typical single-family homes located inrnthe identified MSAs.  Each index combinesrnmatched price pairs for thousands of individual homes from arms-length salesrndata.  The National Index tracks thernvalue of single-family housing within the U.S. and is a composite of home pricernindices for the nine U.S. Census divisions. rnThe indices have a base value of 100 in January 2000, thus a currentrnindex of 150 indicates appreciation of 50 percent since that date for a typicalrnhome within the subject market.  The onlyrncity remaining below the base value is Detroit with a current value of 98.6.

All Content Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Brown House Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.nReproduction in any form without permission of MortgageNewsDaily.com is prohibited.