1st Quarter US Home Prices show record decline in S&P/Case-Shiller Index. New Home Sales rise. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

May 27, 2008 - Forex Economic News

1st Quarter US Home Prices show record decline in S&P/Case-Shiller Index. New Home Sales rise.

Home prices in the U.S. continue to decline according to the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller Home Price Index released today which showed home prices fell by a record amount in the first quarter of 2008. House prices declined by 14.1 percent in the first quarter compared to the same quarter last year. The S & P’s/Case-Shiller Index measures sales prices of existing single-family homes nationally and tracks 10-city and 20-city composite home price measurements. The report showed that the 10-city composite index dropped to a new record annual rate of 15.3 percent in March while the 20-city composite also fell a record annual rate of 14.4 percent when compared to March 2007. Las Vegas and Miami showed the biggest declines in home prices nationally they registered a 25.9 and 24.6 percent drop, respectively, with Phoenix following closely behind with a 23.0 percent decline. Charlotte remained the only housing market of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked that showed a one year positive price growth with home prices increasing by 0.8 percent.

New Home Sales in the United States rose in April according to data released by the Department of Commerce today. New home sales rose by 3.3 percent in March for an annual rate of 526,000 which beat March's revised total of 509,000 sales. Market forecasts had expected that new home sales would increase to a total of 527,000 annual sales. April's annual sales rate, despite the monthly increase, is down by 42.0 percent when compared to April 2007's sales level. The median sales price of new homes increased to $246,100 in April after registering $225,500 in March. The average sales price also increased in April to $321,000 following an average sales price of $291,500 in March.

Tags: case shiller index, house prices, new home sales, department of commerce, median, average, sales price, fx economics, forex

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