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

[LaFeminazi]

Hay! Why are my posts to Oddy always deleted.

I am not be rude,,,hon­estly...ju­st truthful!

[JamesR.]

This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.

Well that didn't take long.

[LaFeminazi]

Yer gorra speel write theze dayz ta git pasted.

[Ammobob]

Just so happens the index measures cities in FL, NV, CA, & AZ that also experienced an 80% appreciation 'bubble' in the years prior to this crisis. Can anyone say CORRECTION?

[LaFeminazi]

Morning how did your binary fission turn out?

[ErnestineBass]

A two flusher.

[frappe]

The CORRECTION that you speak of will occur in the Fall -- specifically on Tues., Nov. 4th -- when Republican politicians everywhere get their well deserved reward for the past eight years of uninterrupted crap -- PINK SLIPS.

[frappe]

You know, that CORRECTION that you speak of will occur in the Fall -- specifically on Tues., Nov. 4th -- when R e p u b l i c a n politicians everywhere get their well deserved reward for the past eight years of uninterrupted crap -- PINK SLIPS.

[tony2008]

The housing price crash was inevitable. That kind of appreciation was unsustainable. The banks should have known better.

[SweetSydney]

Just like the equity markets, pigs get slaughtered.

[Superbus]

Reminds me of the AICPA ads www.feedthepig.org

[CaptainVideo]

Markets left to their own devices just don't work as well as the right wing ideologues claim.

[Heavy]

Can you say deregulation boys and girls?

[timeforachangenow]

knowing better doesn't mean you will do anything about it....8(

and in this administrations history....

That single fact is SO true....8)

[frappe]

The Republican Economy, Part 1

Boy, this Bush economy is great, ain't it? We should all give thanks to the brilliance of Republican policies that have benefited so many. Record deficits on the trade and budget fronts, mountains of U.S. dollars accumulated overseas thanks largely due to our free trade and corporate globalization, relocation and outsourcing. Let's see, there has to be more....Oh yes, that brilliant move by Bush to cut taxes while prosecuting not one, but two wars. Absolutely brilliant. And, let's not forget their smart, aggressive moves to unleash free market forces through deregulation of the banking community. Cash in on loose credit policies in the real estate market and then ultimately pass the cost on to the U.S. taxpayer through various and sundry bailouts. Nothing like the privatization of profits while socializing the costs to boost private initiatives, eh?

[LaFeminazi]

In Booschworld

The economy is alway bright...and in the red.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

He's a nihilist. His family interests have made 1.5 billion dollars because of the Iraq war. That's what motivates these Republicans... Enriching themselves at the expense of the country.

[JoJoKewl]

Supply siders cut taxes and INCREASE SPENDING mostly on the military and then act surprised when they get deficts. You'd have to be stoopid to think they are that stoopid. They deliberately try to bankrupt the Govt. so they can abolish Social Security etc. Set up a train wreck and threaten people with it.

[only1Demvoter]

JoJo : Yep.

This situation of financial decline / corporate welfare with zero culpability, was created with forethought and malicious intent.

... Making it a serious crime !

VERY serious.


-ralph


-ralph

[frappe]

Yes, these deficits were intentional. Absent success with their privatization schemes, R e p u b s can always drive the deficit up, forcing the D e m o c r a t s to focus valuable time and energy on cleaning up their mess. In the process, R e p u b s always push for cuts in the various entitlement programs. So next to privatization, high deficits are always the R e p u b s next best option at limiting the D e m o c r a t i c Party's success. I just wonder if this will forestall the ability to get the much needed health care reform legislation passed. It's a shame. It's unforgivable what the R e p u b s have done to this country.

[frappe]

The Republican Economy, Part 2

Is there more? Why yes, of course there is. There is the Medicare Reform Act shoved down America's throat by Tom Delay in the wee hours of the morning. Do you remember that? He had the foresight to allow the drug companies to write the legislation that prohibited the U.S. government from negotiating prices on behalf of Medicare recipients while privatizing a huge segment of Medicare. Just brilliant. And let's not forget Dick Cheney and his super secret Energy policy meeting where bigwigs from the oil industry were kindly asked to write our energy policy for us. And now, look how brilliant that move has been. Gasoline at around $4 a gallon, up from just over a dollar a gallon at the time of the meeting. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant

[terentz]

To the surjprise of no one. Several houses in my neighborhood have been sporting 'for sale' signs since early spring -- we're talking March. NONE of them have sold -- you don't even see people showing up for open houses. And now the interest rates are climbing again; what you think that's going to do to sales? There's no "bottom" in sight here...

[LiberalBuzz]

Never been so happy about our home arrangement. We bought in 1973 and never took out a second or any sort of loan against it. Paid it off in fact in 1979.

BUT I feel for those people who got suckered into loans without quite understanding what would happen when the introductory rate expired and their payments would skyrocket. I simply don't understand why the current holder of the mortgage just didn't let them stay at that rate?

I mean as it stands they lose someone who WAS making payments and wanted to be a homeowner, and now they have hundreds of thousands of empty homes that are becoming more and more worthless because of the plunge in people able to keep the homes AND vandals destroying so many of them.

The lenders are the idiots in these cases, they simply should have told them, "Fine let's keep the rate the same and you stay there, we collect money and everyone is happy"

WHAT the heck is wrong with that?

[Repub4Obama]

If they get the lending crisis fixed, then the housing market will rebound. There are many people trying to buy these homes at reduced rates, but the underwriting bar is so high now they cannot. The pendulum has swung to over-cautious requirements. I have a property that I have been trying to sell and four deals have fallen thru because of financing. I'd love to buy more homes, but right now I can't because my loans have disappeared.

Stated income and interest-only loans, when used responsibly, are a great tool for those wanted to build a rental home portfolio. In fact, stated income loans are the only type that my wife and I qualify for, as we are self-employed, and while we are higher-income, our 1099's show low amounts due to the depreciation and real estate writeoffs. It's sad that predatory brokers used these loans inappropriately, and I hope they come back.

This is truly not a demand-side or supply-side crisis: it is a lending-side crisis.

[Tom95134]

It's only a crisis if you've used your house like an ATM machine of the past few years and now find your mortgage upside-down.

[danimalia]

No, this is a crisis of epochal proportions. It affects employment and all asset values. We are headed for debt deflation, waves of bank collapses, extremely high unemployment and social unrest. And a possible collapse of the dollar, kind of like what happened to argentina in 2001.

Home prices and real estate prices are going to continue down for 5-10 years, or another 50%. The time to buy is still a LONG way off.

This is a full-scale financial panic. It has been building for 25 years.

[frappe]

The Republican Economy, Part 3

Thank you, Republicans! You have done it again. Brilliant. Masterful. You have done much to turn back the clock to the 1930s when the Great Depression swooped down across the U.S.. Will this time be known as the Terrific Depression? After all, it just exists in our minds according to one of its primary architects -- an important adviser to John McCain, Phil Gramm, the inventor and proponent of the memorable Enron Loophole. Let's hear it for Dick Cheney and Phil Gramm -- Hip, Hip, Hooray!

[JoJoKewl]

The bad news is B u$h is leaving us in awful shape - the good news is, well you know the good news. I'll never have to refer to the little loser as the President ever again.

[alaintex]

This graph will give you even better perspective.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqrguz/housingbubble/united_states_1890-2007.png

[alaintex]

According to this site, we're back to 2005 levels.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqrguz/housingbubble/

[LaFeminazi]

Onward and upward!

Huzzah!

[VolvoBirkenstock]

"According to this site..."

Mysite is SUCH an unimpeachable source!

[alaintex]

I don't know, I just found it, I didn't produce it.

Here's the claim:

For an annualized graph depicting over a century of inflation-adjusted U.S. housing prices based on Yale University economics professor Robert Shiller's data.

Do you have other data, or do you just want to condescendingly look down your nose at mine.

[alaintex]

You like wiki any better?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Shiller_IE2_Fig_2-1.png

[JamesR.]

I see old timers. hahaha Moderate me Amadeus!

[VolvoBirkenstock]

Can you be moderated whilst on a walker?

[JamesR.]

heh Just looked at new profile. 1076 deletes!!! Yes you can!!!

[LaFeminazi]

JR!!!!!

[JamesR.]

M!!!! Mwaaaaaaah darlin'. Does happy feet dance ;)

[Rumplestiltskin]

Bow Tie and all. Hey.

[JamesR.]

Hiya bud. Stil getting smashed and whining about liberals?