U.S. home prices plunge 14.4% and expected to decline further

Filed under: Bad news, Economic data, Housing, Recession

The U.S. housing sector has registered another ignominious statistic. Home prices in a 20-city sample plunged 14.4% in March 2008 (PDF), on a year-over-year basis, according to the S&P / Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price survey released Tuesday. Meanwhile, prices in a 10-city survey plummeted 15.3%.

It was the largest decline in the survey’s 20-year history, Case-Shiller said.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected home prices in the Case-Shiller 20-city survey to decline 14.2% in March 2008 on a year-over-year basis.

The areas with the largest percentage declines were: Las Vegas, -25.9%; Miami, -24.6%, and Phoenix, -23.0%. Only one city in the survey — Charlotte, N.C. — appreciated, with prices there rising just a scant 0.8%.

Percentage price changes in other major U.S. cities were as follows: New York, -7.4%, Los Angeles, -21.7%, Chicago, -10.0%, Boston, -5.9%, San Francisco, -20.2%, Washington, D.C., -14.7%, Miami, -24.6%, and Seattle, -4.4%.

Economic Analysis: Another horrible U.S. housing sector statistic, and the sector remains in deep recession. Economists differ regarding whether the U.S. housing sector has bottomed: some see a housing recovery as early as Q4 2008, while others state it won’t begin until mid-2009. In either event, it’s going to be a while before new home builders can resume typical building schedules and get out there and make some money — a fact that advocates U.S. home prices are prone to continue to decline for at least the next two quarters, and probably longer.

Share This

Share This

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under Real Estate and Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.