Prices (Still) Down 42.3 Percent From Peak

Published: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 8:54 AM PDT

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In April, local home prices were down 42.3 percent from the peak, according to the newest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released this morning.

The aggregate index fell just slightly from March, so slightly that the index was down about the same amount from the peak as it was in March's index.

The pace at which home prices declined slowed in the latest index, too. In March, the year-over-year drop for the aggregate index was 22 percent. In April, prices were down 20 percent from the same month in 2008.

The index, which tracks price changes in the same homes as they sell over the years, showed similar trends in other markets nationwide:

"The pace of decline in residential real estate slowed in April," says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. ... "While one month’s data cannot determine if a turnaround has begun; it seems that some stabilization may be appearing in some of the regions. We are entering the seasonally strong period in the housing market, so it will take some time to determine if a recovery is really here.

"The stock market bottomed in March and measures of consumer confidence have turned upward. This report shows that these better spirits are also appearing in the housing market," Mr. Blitzer commented.

Broken into tiers by the price the homes had previously sold for, all of the tiers showed smaller year-over-year declines than they did in March.

The lowest priced tier (homes priced under $267,446) fell by 25.2 percent compared to April 2008. That tier was down 52.2 percent from its peak in June 2006.

The middle tier, homes priced between $267,446 and $395,965, fell by 15.6 percent year-over-year and 40.9 percent from the November 2005 peak.

And the high tier, homes priced higher than $395,965, fell 17.9 percent year-over-year and 33.6 percent from the peak.

If you want to compare those to the declines in March, you can go back to last month's report here, or see the trends in some graphs Rich Toscano created last month.

We'll have more on these numbers later today. In the meantime, what are you seeing in this market? Are you trying to buy? Sell? Get a loan? Share your experiences in the comments below (go to Survival if you're not already there to comment), or drop me an e-mail at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org.

-- KELLY BENNETT

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