S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Fell 15.3% in April (Update1)
June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in April by the most on record, signaling the housing recession is far from over, a private survey showed today.
The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 15.3 percent from a year earlier, less than forecast, after a 14.3 percent decline in March. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007. The group began keeping year-over-year records in 2001.
Mortgage defaults and foreclosures are adding to the glut of properties on the market, while stricter loan rules are making it more difficult for prospective buyers to get financing. The prolonged real-estate slump, along with higher fuel prices and a shrinking job market, is taking a toll on consumers and the economy.
``There's such an excess of inventories that we certainly expect to see more price declines,' said James O'Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. ``The economy is still weakening and housing still looks pretty weak.'
Declines Widespread
Las Vegas: -26.8%
Miami: -26.7%
Phoenix: -25.0%
Los Angeles: -23.1%
San Diego: -22.4%
San Francisco: -22.1%
Average of 20 large cities: -15.3%
Chicago: -9.3%
New York: -8.4%
Reports this week may reinforce the dim outlook for housing. Combined sales of new and existing homes in May probably were the third-lowest on record, according to the Bloomberg survey median.
Sales May Fall
New-home sales probably fell, approaching March's 17-year low, a report from the Commerce Department tomorrow may show. The National Association of Realtors may report the following day that purchases of existing houses, which account for 85 percent of the market, rose last month from a record low.
Rising borrowing costs aren't helping. Fannie Mae, the largest mortgage buyer, last week cut its forecast for new and existing home sales this year as 30-year fixed mortgage rates jumped to an eight-month high.
Banks repossessed twice as many homes in May as they did a year ago and foreclosure filings rose 48 percent, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a real estate database in Irvine, California.
Homebuilders are reeling. Standard Pacific Corp., an Irvine, California-based homebuilder, last week said new home orders for April and May fell 12 percent from a year earlier, citing ``difficult housing conditions' in most of its markets.
Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and a professor at Yale University, and Karl Case, an economics professor at Wellesley College, created the home-price index based on research from the 1980s.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index and another by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight track the same home over time and more accurately reflect price trends, economists said.
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