The latest Case-Shiller report on house prices was released this morning, and the news was worse than expected:
Data through September 2011, released today by S&P Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show that nationally home prices did not register a significant change in the third quarter of 2011, with the U.S. National Home Price Index up by only 0.1% from its second quarter level. The national index posted an annual decline of 3.9%, an improvement over the 5.8% decline posted in the second quarter. Nationally, home prices are back to their first quarter of 2003 levels.
As of September 2011, the annual rate of change in 14 of the 20 MSAs and both Composites, covered by S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, improved versus August. Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Tampa recorded lower annual declines in September compared to August. Detroit and Washington DC were the only two MSAs to post positive annual rates of +3.7% and +1.0% respectively. Detroit has now recorded three consecutive months of positive annual rates.
Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Phoenix fell to new lows in September, with Atlanta seeing a decline of -5.9%. For the year, Atlanta house prices have fallen -9.89%, Las Vegas prices have fallen -7.3%, and Phoenix prices have fallen -6.5%.
Overall, in the 20 cities the report measures, house prices fell by -3.6% in September, worse than the consensus estimate of a drop of -3% among economists polled by Bloomberg.
The report is available here.
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