Chase-Shiller HPI: Housing Prices Still Falling

Housing prices continued to decline in February and were down 1.0% over the past 12 months, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller housing price indices covering 20 major metropolitan areas.The S&P Case-Shiller HPI has dropped dramatically from a 13.8% annual return in February 2006, and the "deceleration and declines in home prices are showing no signs of a turnaround," said Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC. The HPI fell into negative territory in January for the first time in this housing cycle, as prices in 11 of 20 cities posted negative annual returns. Only seven cities in the HPI posted positive annual returns in the February report. Those cities are: Atlanta (2.1%), Charlotte (7.3%), Chicago (1.3%), Dallas (1.3%), Miami (2.9%), Portland (7.7%), and Seattle (10.6%).