Home prices keep falling
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: The slide in real estate was punctuated today by the Standard & Poors’ Case-Shiller index. It’s a snapshot of housing prices in major markets and it is an ugly picture, indeed.
Prices were down more than 11 percent in January from a year earlier. That’s the steepest drop in the history of the index, which goes back to 1987.
Marketplace’s Nancy Marshall Genzer has more.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: We’re not on a roller coaster ride with these housing prices, it’s more like a plunge.
David Wyss: The speed of the fall suggests to me that people are dumping houses.
Standard & Poors chief economist David Wyss says housing prices are falling faster than expected. That could mean bargain basement prices for, well, basements.
Wyss says we had a big party when housing prices were soaring. The housing bubble was biggest in California, Nevada and Florida. Now it’s popped, leaving plenty of headaches behind.
Wyss: The ones who had the best time are having the biggest hangovers, but it’s hurting all of us.
S&P’s index covers 20 high-priced urban areas. Michelle Meyer is an economist at Lehman Brothers. She says prices are lower even in parts of the country where there wasn’t a bubble. Homeowner confidence is eroding. Buyers are staying away. Meyer says one culprit is the bad housing news on the front page almost every day.
Michelle Meyer: You know, the biggest housing recession since the Great Depression.
The government agrees with S&P. A federal housing index released today showed prices were down three percent from last year.
In Washington, I’m Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
