Dennis Norman
This morning the S&P/Case-Shiller Index report for September was released showing that home prices in the US increased in 3rd quarter 2009 by 3.1 percent (seasonally adjusted) from 2nd quarter. The 3rd quarter index shows a 8.9 percent decline from a year ago,however this is a marked improvement from the 14.7 decline from a year ago in the 2nd quarter. This is the second consecutive quarterly increase (2nd quarter also increased 3.1 percent from 1st quarter) and,according to the report,are now at “similar levels to what they were in autumn 2003.”
The S&P/Case-Shiller Index report has a composite index also that covers 20 large metropolitan areas and this index saw an increase in 3rd quarter as well,albeit a rather modest 0.3 percent increase. The 20 city index is down 9.4 percent from a year ago,but like the US home price index above,the annual decline is an improvement from August when it was down 11.3 percent.
I like the S&P/Case-Shiller Index and feel it is one of the more accurate ways to measure what is happening to
home prices in the metro areas covered by their report and,since they cover the major metros,a fairly good reflection of what is going on in the U.S. housing market as a whole. One of the things I like is they are actually tracking sales prices of the same homes through time,therefore truly an “apples to apples”comparison of
home values. Many economists,including those at the
National Association of REALTORS(R) track median home prices and base changes in home prices upon median prices. Personally I feel median home prices can be skewed for a time period by an influx of sales of lower-priced,or higher-priced homes. For example,the last couple of months have seen a big run-up in sale of first-time home-buyer homes as a result of the tax credit. I would suspect this will end up bringing down the median home prices although it doesn’t mean that home prices dropped,just that a bunch of lower priced homes sold during the period.
Related posts:
- Report Shows U.S. Home Prices Hit Record Low in First Quarter;"No relief in sight"
- Home Prices Lose Momentum and Fall in First Quarter
- US Home prices appear to be leveling off
- Home prices decline in third quarter
- Report shows home prices up modestly over last year
[...] that the first-time home buyer tax credit,coupled with record low interest rates and drastically reduced home prices,is giving buyers,at least first-time home-buyers,the confidence to move forward in their [...]