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S&P Housing Price Index Down for 17th Straight Month in April
A closely watched monthly index of existing single-family housing prices by Standard & Poor’s declined in April for the 17th consecutive month since December 2005 and showed that no region of the country has escaped the downturn.
An annual decline of 2.7% brought the 10-city composite in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices to its lowest level since 1991. The indices also include a 20-city composite that was started in 2001.
“A review of the decline in home price returns on a regional level shows no region is immune to the weakening price returns,” said Robert J. Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC.
“While regional economic fundamentals may be keeping cities like Portland (Ore.), Seattle and Charlotte (N.C.) in positive territory, they have not curbed their diminishing returns,” Shiller said. “For example, Seattle reported annual returns of 9.6% this month compared to the 17.8% reported for April last year. In addition, Miami has crossed into negative territory this month, with a 1.0% annual decline.”
Detroit was at the top of the 20-city list for weakening housing prices, with a 9.3% decline over the 12-month period through this April. San Diego and Washington, D.C. were next in line, with price declines of 6.7% and 5.7%, respectively.
Four cities — Atlanta, Boston, Dallas and Denver — saw both monthly price increases in April and some modest strengthening in their annual rates of return. Whether or not this signals the beginnings of a recovery in these markets will become more apparent with a few more months of index data.
 Want to Know the Housing Forecast for the Top 100 Metros?
Find out in HousingEconomic.com’s 2007-2008 Metro Forecast (free preview). Get the metro forecast with in-depth analysis, overviews and downloadable Excel tables.
To learn more, visit www.HousingEconomics.com.
 NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market
With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into next year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment.
To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar.
For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242.
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