Done Deals: Steep Declines in Home Prices Continued in April 2008 According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Steep Declines in Home Prices Continued in April 2008 According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices

NEW YORK, June 24, 2008 – Data through April 2008, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show annual declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States continued to worsen in April 2008, with all 20 MSAs now posting annual declines, 13 of which are posting record low annual declines, and 10 of which are in double-digits.

The chart at left depicts the annual returns of the 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite Indices. Both composite indices are now reporting annual declines in excess of 15.0%. The 10-City Composite posted a new record low of -16.3%, and the 20-City Composite recorded a record low of -15.3%.

“There might be some regional pockets of improvement, but on an annual basis the overall numbers continue to decline,” says David M. Blitzer, (top right photo) Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's. “All 20 MSAs are now showing declines with Charlotte, the last holdout during the 2007/early 2008 period, now reporting an annual decline of 0.1%.

One possible bright side to the annual figures is that three

MSAs – Chicago, Cleveland and Denver – while still negative, showed some improvement in their annual figures over those reported last month.

Looking at the monthly statistics, eight of the 20 metro areas were positive for the April-over-March reading. But for those that reported monthly declines, seven were in excess of 2%. The monthly data also show that 12 of the MSAs have now declined every month since September 2007, marking eight consecutive months.

If there is anywhere to look for possible improvement, it would be that the pace of monthly declines has slowed down for most of the markets.”

Las Vegas and Miami continue to share the dubious distinction of being the weakest markets over the past 12 months returning -26.8% and -26.7%, respectively. These two markets witnessed some of the fastest growth in the 2004/2005 periods, with annual growth rates peaking above +53% and +32%, respectively.

For the month of April, markets that experienced great gains in the recent real estate boom were the biggest decliners. Miami and Phoenix were the worst performers. Each had a negative return in excess of 3%. Charlotte and Dallas are the only two markets to have two consecutive months of positive returns.

The table below summarizes the results for April 2008. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are revised for the 24 prior months, based on the receipt of additional source data. More than 21 years of history for these data series is available, and can be accessed in full by going to http://www.homeprice.standardandpoors.com/.

Additional information and data including history for the indices back to 1987, sales-pair counts showing the number of observations for each month, tiered price indices showing prices for low-, mid- and high-priced homes in 17 of the 20 MSAs and the methodology document describing index calculation can be found at www.homeprice.standardandpoors.com.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are published on the last Tuesday of each month at 9:00 am ET. They are constructed to accurately track the price path of typical single-family homes located i

n each metropolitan area provided. Each index combines matched price pairs for thousands of individual houses from the available universe of arms-length sales data.

The S&P/Case-Shiller® National U.S. Home Price Index tracks the value of single-family housing within the United States. The index is a composite of single-family home price indices for the nine U.S. Census divisions and is calculated quarterly. The

S&P/Case-Shiller Composite of 10 Home Price Index is a value-weighted average of the 10 original metro area indices. The S&P/Case-Shiller Composite of 20 Home Price Index is a value-weighted average of the 20 metro area indices. The indices have a b

ase value of 100 in January 2000; thus, for example, a current index value of 150 translates to a 50% appreciation rate since January 2000 for a typical home located within the subject market.

These indices are generated and published under agreements between Standard & Poor’s and Fiserv, Inc. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are produced by Fiserv, Inc.

In addition to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, Fiserv also offers home price index sets covering thousands of zip codes, counties, metro areas, and state markets. The indices, published by Standard & Poor's, represent just a small subset of the bro

ader data available through Fiserv.

About Standard & Poor’s
Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data.

With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 23 countries, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions.

For more information contact:
David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee Standard & Poor’s 212 438 3907
david_blitzer@standardandpoors.com