Case-Shiller: L.A. home prices down 26.7%
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Housing prices in Los Angeles fell 26.7% in the year ending in August, as home prices continued to fall sharply across the Sunbelt, according to the widely watched Case-Shiller index of home prices. The national headline, from the Wall Street Journal:
The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, a closely watched gauge of U.S. home prices, showed prices in August continue to decline, with areas along the Sun Belt being hit hardest. David M. Blitzer, chairman of Standard & Poor’s index committee, noted there were ‘very few bright spots in the data.’ Among them is that the acceleration in decline from July to August was ‘only moderate.’ The indexes showed home prices in 10 major metropolitan areas fell a record 17.7% in August from a year earlier and 1.1% from July. The drop marks the 10-city index’s 11th-straight monthly report of a record decline.
More on L.A. prices: The rate at which prices are falling was slightly higher from July to August (1.8%) than it was from June to July (1.6%). The year-over-year price decline increased from 26.2% in July to 26.7% in August.
The steepest price declines remain concentrated in what one analyst has called the ‘sand states’ -- Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California. Here are the cities suffering the largest year-over-year declines:
Phoenix 30.7%
Las Vegas 30.6%
Miami 28.1%
San Francisco 27.3%
Los Angeles 26.7%
A note about the Case-Shiller index: It does not translate prices into dollar figures, instead tracking prices from a base level of 100 in January of 2000. The index for Los Angeles is 189, indicating the city’s housing is still much more expensive than it was eight years ago. The average for the 20 large cities tracked by Case-Shiller is 164.
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