Home prices continued to drop in October, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, with home prices in the Sun Belt continuing to be hit hardest.
“The bear market continues; home prices are back to their March 2004 levels,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee. He added that both composite indexes and 14 of the 20 metropolitan areas are reporting new record declines. As of October, the 10-city index is down 25% from its mid-2006 peak and the 20-city is down 23%, Blitzer said.
The indexes showed prices in 10 major metropolitan areas fell 19% in October from a year earlier and 3.6% from September. The drop marks the 10-city index’s 13th straight monthly report of a record decline. In 20 major metropolitan areas, home prices dropped 18% from the prior year, also a record, and 2.2% from September. None of the regions was able to stave off a decline from September to October.| Metro Area | October 2008 | Change from September | Year-over-year change |
| Atlanta | 119.77 | -2.4% | -10.5% |
| Boston | 159.17 | -1.1% | -6.0% |
| Charlotte | 128.02 | -1.8% | -4.4% |
| Chicago | 145.49 | -1.6% | -10.8% |
| Cleveland | 108.76 | -1.0% | -6.2% |
| Dallas | 120.60 | -1.1% | -3.0% |
| Denver | 129.05 | -1.5% | -5.2% |
| Detroit | 86.10 | -4.5% | -20.4% |
| Las Vegas | 142.57 | -2.7% | -31.7% |
| Los Angeles | 179.82 | -2.6% | -27.9% |
| Miami | 173.42 | -3.0% | -29.0 |
| Minneapolis | 135.71 | -3.4% | -16.3% |
| New York | 190.04 | -0.9% | -7.5% |
| Phoenix | 135.18 | -3.3% | -32.7% |
| Portland | 166.44 | -1.9% | -10.1% |
| San Diego | 159.12 | -3.0% | -26.7% |
| San Francisco | 139.44 | -4.2% | -31.0% |
| Seattle | 170.45 | -1.4% | -10.2% |
| Tampa | 165.44 | -3.4% | -19.8% |
| Washington | 184.92 | -2.7% | -18.7% |
This isn't really news to readers of this blog. It does illustrate that the bottom ain't anywhere close though. Accelerating price drops are an good indication that there's still a long way to fall. This is the same pattern we saw last year in this area. The prices were sticky until late in the year as sellers were hoping that the late summer buyers would save the day. When that didn't happen the prices really took a big fall in the winter. This year will probably mirror that. With a flood of REO's poised to hit the market and buyer sentiment at all time lows the chance of prices stabilizing are slim.