Home Prices Plunge Record 15.8 Percent In May

NEW YORK — Home prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever in May, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday, as the housing slump deepened nationwide.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index dropped by 15.8 percent in May compared with a year ago, a record decline since its inception in 2000. The 10-city index plunged 16.9 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.

No city in the Case-Shiller 20-city index saw price gains in May, the second straight month that's happened. The monthly indices have not recorded an overall home price increase in any month since August 2006.

Home values have fallen 18.4 percent since the 20-city index's peak in July 2006.

Nine metropolitan cities _ Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C. _ posted record declines in May. And the value of housing in Detroit is now lower than it was in 2000.

But a possible bright spot in an otherwise dismal report, seven metros _ Tampa, Fla., Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Dallas and Atlanta _ showed smaller annual declines.

Las Vegas recorded the worst drop, with prices plunging 28.4 percent in the month. Miami came in a close second, with prices down 28.3 percent.

Charlotte, N.C., posted the smallest drop at 0.2 percent. Until April, the North Carolina city had been the last metro still showing price gains.

Comments

[fireW]

As usual, Republican effects of criminality will cost individuals (and the taxpayers eventually) billions of dollars. And as usual, they will get away with it because the sheeple (including church gunmen) buy the line of nonsense that the GOP is correct and everyone else is the problem . . .

Shoulder deep in morons as the ship is sinking . . .

[alaintex]

Sometimes if you make a little outline before you start typing, it helps to keep your thoughts focused.

[CrapWhisperer]

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LOFL

Advice from a blithering idiot!

Priceless!!
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[VolvoBirkenstock]

"Sorry, we couldn't load comments for some reason. Try reloading the page."

Translation: We have no idea what is wrong. Try rolling the dice again.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

LOL. That is exactly what it sounds like. Although in their defense I must say that javascript is a b i t c h to work with.

[ThunderclapNewman]

Unfortunately, they've never heard of beta-testing.

[CrapWhisperer]

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NotForHer15HighlyPaidTrolls/Shills/Inciters!
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[ThunderclapNewman]

Heh.

[CrapWhisperer]

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Talking Walnuts is being reformatted (and redesigned) by wordpress and will reemerge in August!
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[VolvoBirkenstock]

Good!

:)

[BradPittsburgh]

a new home for bert and ernie.

[JamesR.]

Yay.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

"This comment has already been posted, please wait for moderation"

[MKJeeves]

So will our property taxes go down then?

[Gina322]

Now you know good and well.........

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HatingTheGame]

New home sale property taxes will drop, so your schools will suffer. There are a lot of multiplier effects to this disaster.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

If the market determines the wages of an employee does it dictate the wage of an executive?

[alaintex]

Of course it does.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

So why does the employee who is the one who produces whatever product is being sold gets s h i t on?

[frappe]

It appears of late that the proper equation or theorem for determining the salary of top executives is as follows:

--- An executive's salary (and bonus) will be in direct proportion to the degree and extent to which he has screwed his fellow countrymen. ----

As a result of the above, executive salaries have risen from just 10X that of the average worker to what has now become 400X that of the average worker.

[CrapWhisperer]

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No!

And it shouldn't!!

No executive = No employees!
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[MajorKong]

Not really. These guys all sit on each others boards of directors and vote each other pay raises.

[Mogamboguru]

Seen THAT ONE already?

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=58634

Quote: "Aussi Bank Writedown Shock Street?
Monday, July 28, 2008 - FreeMarketNews.com

The National Australia Bank's decision to write off 90 per cent of its US conduit loans will have dramatic repercussions around the world. Wall Street will be deeply shocked when they understand the repercussions of what NAB has done. It is clear global banks have nowhere near provided for their exposures to US housing loans which in the words of John Stewart are experiencing a “meltdown”.

We are now way beyond sub-prime. NAB says that it is suffering a 55 per cent loss on American housing loans – an event that has never happened in the history of a developed country in recent memory. This is an unprecedented event and means that the cost of bailing out the US financial system is now far beyond the highest estimates. A US recession is now locked in, but more alarmingly, 55 per cent loan losses point to the possibility of a depression. " Unquote.

The perfect storm is gathering.

[helen]

It's not over yet. From what I've read, statistics wise, there's another two years of foreclosures, credit withdrawal, and bank and lending institution failures yet to come.

It really doesn't matter whether the Fed is willing to recognize that we're way past recession and on to something far worse. They have gamed the definitions in order to paint a rosier picture. Why? To avoid a panic.

Ok, I can go along with why they do that, but it is not honest. Let's just get the pain over with already, so we can rebuild and move on.

[LarsGruber]

and it's all Obama's fault!

[Dialogue]

What other alternatives are available? Well, let's see. We could lower everyone's mortgage balances to reflect the falling house prices. We could eliminate all income taxes, on the first 75K of income. We could waive all mortgage payments for those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, or, we could declare 2008 as the year of "JUBILEE", and simply wipe out all debt obligations - period.

Empathy gets you further along lifes path, than being a grumpy, hold-em accountable at-all costs control freak. Banks are raking in interest on almost every conceivable transaction one can image, and is the country better off for it, HARDLY! Why? Because the banks have top-gun lawyers who write loan and mortgage contracts that are written in 24 grade level verbiage or higher. When Clark Howard interviewed a female attorney on television a few years ago, the attorney said she was taken in by the mortgage document, even though she went over the document meticulously before she signed it. A mortgage document can be understood by a banks customer one-way, and yet, when in a courtroom, that documents writer can be called to testify that the wording has another meaning. The bottom line - mortgage documents shoud be structured so that an eight grade student manifestly understanding it, otherwise, its like dealing with a loan shark, who wants what he wants, when he wants it, and who would defend or justify that, maybe Ebenezer Scrooge.

[Razz]

This is GREAT NEWS. Hope the home prices drop even further.

[MKJeeves]

So our property taxes will go down now, right?

[Steambomb]

I encourage EVERYONE to contact who ever they need to contact to have their property re-assessed to decrease the amount of property taxes they are paying. You are going to need the little bit of money you will save to help you ride out this economic disaster that Bush created. Otherwise the gov gets your money and ships it off to Iraq.

[swooge]

I have to say, a lot of these people we're bailing out were trying to make a quick buck, gambled and lost or were living way beyond their means. I have little sympathy for them.

Bailing out insolvent and poorly run businesses only encourages others to take huge risks knowing full well that if they make large enough gambles then the federal government will come to the rescue.

I didn't get a "too good to be true" home loan. I didn't live beyond my means. I'm not real happy pulling those M0r0ns fat out of the fryer.

What's so bad about letting them twist in the wind?

[LarsGruber]

$300 a month for every Sunni fighter.

(just in case you wanted to know where tax dollars are going)

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Bribery, so the contracts can continue is the Republican strategy called the "surge".

[ErnestineBass]

Don't know about anybody else, but I could sure use an extra $300 bucks a month...hmmm...

[ThunderclapNewman]

The problem is that if we want to help the poor saps who believed the line of bull they got from their mortgage lenders, we have to also bail out the lenders, or at least some of them.

There's also the little problem of not letting the entire financial system of the whole country go swirling down the bowl---somehow a replay of the early 30s doesn't exactly warm the cockles of my heart.

It's all very distasteful, and the legislation is a short-term solution only.
The problems that have to be addressed are structural in nature, and will require that Repubs not be in charge of anything that is done.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

You can't reward non regulatory practices by bailing anyone out. Liar loans shouldn't be honored or refinanced. Mortgage brokers who got commissions on these loans should be fined.

[BradPittsburgh]

you must not be a liberal.

[ZHarris]

Can you count to thirteen?

[LarsGruber]

you must be a conservative. you're too chicken to join your war.

[swooge]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since when has personal responsibility been a Conservative ideal?

Paying lip service to it means nothing.

Conservatives won't own up to creating the mess in Iraq, the current economic crisis, the deregulation that led to all this hardship, creating the outsourcing of jobs for corporate profit and gutting environmental laws.

They won't own up to their responsibility to the world concerning pollution, global climate change, the world court or the UN.

Their only duty owed is to the bottom line of their corporate ledger and the rest be damned.

What's even funnier is the bigotry of the unwashed white rednecks (which they also won't own up to) that keeps them in the pocket of the rich and powerful and makes them vote against their best interests.

Being personally responsible for your actions is a HUMAN quality. Something that many rich, poor and otherwise intelligent people forget.

[dadw5boys]

LIBERIAL DON'T BAIL OUT CORPORATIONS !!!!!!!!

That is all Right Wing Republicans.

[Dialogue]

Lets declare 2008 as a year of Jubilee, and wipe all slates clean of any debt. The banking interests will not be pleased, but we have wiped out debts of other countries in the past, its way past time too do it at home, here in America. I understand that Ebenezer Scrooge would-turn-over in his grave if we were to implement a year of Jubilee, but, it is what it is, let's face it!

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Agreed. Nobody should be bailed out, and that includes corporations.

[Gina322]

Breaking News:


WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say the Justice Department has indicted Alaska Senator T*d St*vens on charges related to a long-running investigation of business dealings in Alaska.

[ThunderclapNewman]

There is a Dog!

[Gina322]

Another one bites the dust?

[ChiGuy]

You could see that one coming from miles away.

Next: His crooked son.

They'll both be taking the bridge to nowhere, but prison.

[BradPittsburgh]

flagged - off topic.

[Gina322]

flagged - sipping too much hateraide

[ThunderclapNewman]

Flagged--a waste of oxygen.

[VolvoBirkenstock]

Tr0lls do not make that determination.

[alaintex]

Good, from what I understand he's very deserving.

[kay]

I can't find anything on "W"'s visit to Ohio today, to tout the conservative economy.

Can someone rustle up a link? I want to see if The Maverick supports the President.

[ThunderclapNewman]

Of course McMav supports him---until he flipflops and doesn't.

[kay]

I knew The Maverick was lying about his sudden conversion to environmentalism. I think it's wild his staffer ADMITTED they were lying though.

That's Straight Talk!

[MajorKong]

The conservative economy hasn't been very good for Ohio. We never really recovered from the 2001 recession.

[ZHarris]

You must be logged in to reply to this comment.

[Steambomb]

lol. That was slick.

[outnow]

Central banking with dollar hegemony is a race to the bottom for working people. That is what causes asset bubbles. It's all about low wages for working people and the elimination of social safety nets. It's called debt capitalism. Instead of a credit system we have a debt-based system run by a central bank since 1913. By 1971 we were off the gold-related standard. Since 1973 there has been recycling of petro-dollars into other dollar assets to tolerate the oil cartels. The free trade idea was that of David Ricardo (1772 - 1823) whose "comparative advantage" made sense back then for British trade of the 19th century at least. Foreign central banks must accumulate dollars to but oil to ward off speculative attacks on their currencies which fuels massive global debt bubbles. In turn, working people cannot earn enough to purchase the highly-inflated real estate prices. It's all Reagonomics for the wealthy to get richer. All other economies act as derivatives of the US dollar fueling a commodities-led inflation.

There is new progressive and populist pressure to reform the structure of U.S. capitalism with a new Bretton Wood-type agreement. Foreign countries are looking at populist economic nationalism and rejecting neoliberalism such as IMF and BIS (bank of International Settlements). Until then, you can expect further collapse of real estate prices, hyperinflation and unemployment.

Be proactive and write to your elected representatives to institute a system of federal credit, investment in infrastructure, and fewer wars.

[fuzzwald]

Could you go a bit slower with that? How about some links for us laypersons?

[CrapWhisperer]

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HarriannaUffington!

LOFL
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[CrapWhisperer]

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Harrianna Uffington!

LOFL
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