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US home price falls continued to ease in December; Nationally home prices are at levels similar to summer of 2003
By Finfacts Team
Feb 23, 2010 - 2:32:08 PM
US home prices fell in December but were up when adjusted for seasonal factors, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes, as yearly falls continued to ease. For the fourth quarter, the S&P Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index posted a 2.5% drop from a year earlier, a big improvement from the 19%, 15% and 8.7% declines in the rest of 2009. It fell 1.1% sequentially but rose 1.6% adjusting for seasonal factors. Nationally home prices are at levels similar to summer of 2003.
Home prices in 20 major US cities dipped a not-seasonally adjusted 0.2% in December compared with November, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's. Prices were down 3.1% in the past year. A quarterly index covering the entire nation showed home prices fell 1.1% in the fourth quarter compared with the third. National home prices were down 2.5% in the past year.
Only five of 20 cities in the index showed declines from November to December. The index is now up more than 3% from its bottom in May, but still 30% below its May 2006 peak.
On a quarterly basis, US home prices dropped 2.5% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008.
David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, said that the housing market is "definitely in better shape" and that the pace of deterioration has stabilized. But the rate of improvement seen during the summer hasn't survived.
"We are in a seasonally slow period for home prices, however, so it is not surprising to see better statistics in the seasonally adjusted data, where 14 of the markets and the two monthly composites all rose in December,"he said.
Compared with a year earlier, Las Vegas continued to be hit the hardest, posting a dip of 21% in home prices. Tampa and Detroit followed with declines of 11% and 10%, respectively. The best year-on-year performer was San Francisco, which posted a 4.8% rise.
Month-to-month gainers were led by Los Angeles, which rose 1%. Chicago again fared worst, falling 1.6%.
Home price data continues to show a mixed picture. Robert Shiller, an economics professor at Yale, and David Blitzer, of the S&P 500 Index Cmte., discuss the latest data:
