Housing Prices Continue to Sink

U.S. home prices fell nationally by a record 15% in April from the level recorded a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. All 20 of the metropolitan areas tracked by the Case-Shiller index are now showing home price declines on an annualized basis. In 12 of the 20 metropolitan areas, prices have declined for eight consecutive months. Las Vegas and Miami continued to have the most severe home price deterioration over the previous 12 months. In a report with few bright spots, Case-Shiller found that the rate of annual price declines moderated in markets such as Chicago, Cleveland, and Denver in April. "If there is anywhere to look for possible improvement, it would be that the pace of monthly declines has slowed down for most of the markets," said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's. Separately, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight reported that home values fell 0.8% from March to April, based on OFHEO's repeat home sales price index. OFHEO estimates a smaller 12-month decline than the Case-Shiller index, calculating that home values declined by 4.6% from April 2007 to April 2008. S&P can be found on the Web at http://www.standardandpoors.com.