Housing Bubble Follow

Data through October 2007 for the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices fell 6.1% year over year, showing broadbased declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States. This marks the 10th consecutive month of negative annual returns, and the 23rd consecutive month of decelerating returns. This was the biggest decline in this down cycle as prices fell 1.42% sequentially. The biggest decline was in San Diego, and smallest drop was in Portland. (NY had the 2nd smallest fall). Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas, L.A. and San Francisco had amongst the biggest price declines. This is consistent with the reversal of those regions that had the largest increases during the boom times. Our man Robert J. Shiller says: “No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim. Not only did the 10-City Composite post a record low in its annual growth rate, but 11 of the 20 metro areas did the same. If you look at the monthly figures, every MSA went down in both October and September. Eleven of the 20 MSAs, in addition to the two composites, recorded their single largest monthly decline on...