The Standard & Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (HPI) for January
which were released on Tuesday are reporting further bad news on the home value
front.
The HPI which tracks, in two different indices, 10 and 20 metropolitan
statistical areas (MSAs) across the United States, reported that the prices of
existing family homes nationally continued to decline into the new year. 16 of
the 20 MSAs in the larger survey reported record declines, ten of them reaching
double digits.
Both the 10-City and the 20-City Composite Indices are now reporting annual
declines in excess of 10 percent. The 10-City had a record annual decline of
11.4 percent; the 20-City reported a decline of 10.7 percent.
Las Vegas and
Miami ' boom cities only months ago ' share honors for being the
weakest cities price-wise in January. Both showed price declines year-over-year
of 19.3 percent with Phoenix not far behind at 18.2 percent. Other MSAs with
double-digit declines include Detroit (15.1 percent), Los Angeles (16.5
percent), Minneapolis (10 percent), San Diego (16.7 percent), San Francisco,
(13.2 percent,) Tampa (15 percent), and Washington (10.9 percent).
David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's commented
about the survey results; "Unfortunately it does not look like early 2008 is
marking any turnaround in the housing market, after the declining year recorded
throughout 2007. Home prices continue to fall, decelerate and reach record lows
across the nation. No markets seem to be completely immune from the housing
crisis, with 19 of the 20 metro areas reporting annual declines in January and
the remaining ' Charlotte North Carolina ' eking out a benign 1.8 percent growth
rate. Looking deeper into the data, you can see that 16 of the metro areas are
also reporting record low annual growth rates. The monthly data show that every
one of the MSAs has now declined every month since September 2007, marking five
consecutive months. On top of that, the declines have increased through time, in
general, as 13 of the 20 MSAs reported their single largest monthly decline in
January."
Taking the long view of the HPI data, however, homeowners in many MSAs should
still be counting their blessings. The indices use the year 2000 as a base,
assigning that year the number 100. Therefore a current score of 150 would
indicate a 50 percent price appreciation in the last eight years. The score for
the 10 City Composite is 196.06 and the 20-City 180.65. Some of the worst hit
cities by current performance still show remarkable appreciation since 2000; for
example, Miami (225.40), Los Angeles (224.21) and Las Vegas (186.05).