From Homescape

written by Amy Le on Monday, March 31, 9:49AM

Amy Le

Two separate housing reports released last week indicate bleak outlook for home values. Data through January 2008, released by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, show declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States, with 16 of the 20 reporting metropolitan areas posting record low annual declines, of which 10 are in double-digits.

The report by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), an agency that regulates government-sponsored mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, showed prices had fallen 3.0 percent for the 12 months ending in January.

Regional price drops
Regionally, prices plunged 9.4 percent in the Pacific region, 4.3 percent in the New England region, 4.2 percent in the East North Central region, 3 percent in the South Atlantic, 2.2 percent in the West North Central region and 0.8 percent in the Mountain region while rising 1.5 percent in the West South Central region, 0.7 percent in the East South Central region and 0.5 percent in the Middle Atlantic, from January 2007 to January 2008, according to the OFHEO report.

The S&P/Case-Shiller report has Las Vegas and Miami leading the surge in price declines in January, with each posting an annual decline of 19.3 percent. Phoenix trailed with a decline of 18.2 percent. Charlotte, N.C. ,dodged the price-decline bullet with a gain of 1.8 percent.

A long road ahead
A report released by the National Association of Realtors on Monday showed the median price of a home sold in February 2008 fell 8.2 percent to $195,900 from $213,500 a year earlier — the largest year-over-year price drop on record. Before the start of the current housing slump, it had been 11 years since prices declined, when compared with the same period a year earlier. Many economists say the steep price declines are no surprise, given the number of homes on the market.

“Unfortunately it does not look like early 2008 is marking any turnaround in the housing market, after the declining year recorded throughout 2007,” says David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “Home prices continue to fall, decelerate and reach record lows across the nation. No markets seem to be completely immune from the housing crisis.”

S&P/Case-Shiller January home-price index

Source: S&P/Case-Shiller

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@homescape.com.

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