Case-Shiller HPI Records 1.4% Decline

House prices declined 1.4% in October and were down 6.1% on a year-over-year basis, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller housing price index that covers 20 metropolitan statistical areas.Eleven of the 20 MSAs recorded their largest monthly decline since January 2000, according to Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC. "No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim," Mr. Shiller said. Only three MSAs -- Charlotte, N.C. (4.3%), Seattle (3.3%), and Portland, Ore. (1.9%) -- continued to experience price appreciation since October 2006. "Atlanta and Dallas finally entered into negative territory with declines of 0.7% and 0.1%," the Case-Shiller report says. Meanwhile, Miami posted a 12.4% decline in prices, the highest of the 20 MSAs, and surpassed Tampa, Fla., for the first time. Prices in Tampa had declined by 11.8% over the previous 12 months.