Home Price Declines Accelerate
According to today's OFHEO Q1 report, U.S. house price declines accelerated 1.7% vs Q4 and 3.1% from a year earlier.
OFHEO's Home Price Index measures changes of values for properties using selling prices and appraisals based on conforming mortgage data from FNMA & FHLMC.
That excludes non conforming jumbo loans, for more than $729,750 in high-cost areas, and most low, no down, interest only and subprime mortgages.
Prices for previously owned single-family homes fell in 43 states, with values in California and Nevada tumbling more than 8%.
Of the 20 ranked cities with the greatest price declines over the latest four quarters, all but one (Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada) were in California or Florida.
OFHEO Director James B. Lockhart: "For homeowners and financial market observers,
these declines spell further erosion in home equity levels and potentially more trouble for mortgage markets."
Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Northern Trust:
"It's a dismal picture, there's no way around it. A complicating factor is the fact that so many homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.
This is a financial crisis. You can't put lipstick on this pig."
The Nattering One muses... sales may start to pick up, but as inventory swells with further resets & vacant REO's, prices will continue to decline.
S&P Case Shiller data includes non conforming, jumbo, sub prime, interest only, low & no down data...
a more complete, realistic and grimer picture (13% Yoy decline) than today's OFHEO report.
Regardless, todays OFHEO report reflected the largest decline in the purchase only indexes 17 year history.
Video interview with James O'Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC: Home prices not near bottom, declines accelerating.
OFHEO's Home Price Index measures changes of values for properties using selling prices and appraisals based on conforming mortgage data from FNMA & FHLMC.
That excludes non conforming jumbo loans, for more than $729,750 in high-cost areas, and most low, no down, interest only and subprime mortgages.
Prices for previously owned single-family homes fell in 43 states, with values in California and Nevada tumbling more than 8%.
Of the 20 ranked cities with the greatest price declines over the latest four quarters, all but one (Las Vegas-Paradise, Nevada) were in California or Florida.
OFHEO Director James B. Lockhart: "For homeowners and financial market observers,
these declines spell further erosion in home equity levels and potentially more trouble for mortgage markets."
Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Northern Trust:
"It's a dismal picture, there's no way around it. A complicating factor is the fact that so many homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.
This is a financial crisis. You can't put lipstick on this pig."
The Nattering One muses... sales may start to pick up, but as inventory swells with further resets & vacant REO's, prices will continue to decline.
S&P Case Shiller data includes non conforming, jumbo, sub prime, interest only, low & no down data...
a more complete, realistic and grimer picture (13% Yoy decline) than today's OFHEO report.
Regardless, todays OFHEO report reflected the largest decline in the purchase only indexes 17 year history.
Video interview with James O'Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC: Home prices not near bottom, declines accelerating.
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