US Home Prices Continue to Fall in November

US Home Prices continued to fall through November 2008 according to the latest Case- Shiller Home Price index report. The 10 city index is now down -26.6% from its peak whilst the 20 city index is down -25.1%.

There are moves afoot to try and put a floor under US housing the whinging about putting a floor under housing prices but since they have only reverted back to early 2004 levelsis it really needed? Don;t they just need to market to adjust itself? From the report:

“The freefall in residential real estate continued through November 2008,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “Since August 2006, the 10-City and 20-City Composites have declined every month – a total of 28 consecutive months. Every region was down in excess of 1% for the November/October period, with eight of the regions recording record monthly declines. Phoenix and Las Vegas were the worst performers for the month at -3.4% and -3.3%,respectively, and also have the lowest returns over the one-year period, returning -32.9% and -31.6% respectively. Overall, more than half of the metro areas had record annual declines.”

Prices will continue to come down and that will persist through most of 2008 despite what the US government does. Some of the worst affected areas could possibly see price declines of -50% or more before the worst is over.