It should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention to housing markets that home prices have continued their decline in 2009. Recently released data from Standard & Poor’s S&P/Case-Shiller 2009 Home Price Indices confirms what many in the industry are seeing firsthand: continuing broad-based declines in existing single-family home prices across the United States from January 2008 through January 2009. Thirteen of the 20 metro areas tracked had record rates of annual decline, according to Standard & Poor’s, and 14 others experienced declines in excess of 10 percent compared to January 2008.
“There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of Standard & Poor’s Index Committee, in an announcement about the new data. “Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path, with all of the 20 metro areas reporting annual declines and nine of the MSAs [metropolitan statistical areas] falling more than 20 percent in the last year.”
The Home Price Indices monitors 20 metro areas: Atlanta; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Minneapolis; New York City; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Tampa, Fla.; and Washington, D.C. Each of the 20 metro areas reported negative rates of change in average home prices both monthly and annually.
However, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas reported lesser rates of decline from December 2008 through January 2009 compared to the previous month-over-month period—a relative improvement for these markets. Phoenix, Las Vegas, and San Francisco have reported the highest annual declines, with negative returns in excess of 30 percent.
All 20 metro areas have reported double-digit declines from their individual peaks, according to Standard & Poor’s, with Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco, and San Diego posting declines in excess of 40 percent. According to the Indices, Dallas has been impacted the least. Dallas metro area home prices have declined only 10.8 percent from their June 2007 peak, and the market’s rate of decline has been effectively nonexistent from November through December 2008 and from December 2008 through January 2009, holding steady at -2.4 percent.For more information about the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, visit www.homeprice.standardandpoors.com.
