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National home price index shows increases; Las Vegas remains down
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While the national home price index showed increases in July, Las Vegas' numbers remain down. » Buy this photo
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Sep. 27, 2011 | 12:35 p.m.
The widely watched Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index increased for the fourth consecutive month in July, though Las Vegas was not among the housing markets showing improvement in the 20-city composite.
The index rose 0.9 percent in July as 17 of the 20 metropolitan statistical areas in the index posted gains from the previous month. Las Vegas and Phoenix were down, and Denver was flat.
Case-Shiller showed Las Vegas at the 95.48 level in July, down 0.2 percent from June and down 5.4 percent from a year ago.
On an annual basis, Detroit and Washington, D.C., were the two cities that posted positive rates of change, up 1.2 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. The remaining 18 cities were down in July from the same month last year.
After three consecutive double-digit annual declines, Minneapolis improved marginally to a decline of 9.1 percent, which is still the worst of the 20 cities.
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index is a value-weighted average of the 20 metro area indices. The indices have a base value of 100 in January 2000. For example, a current index value of 150 translates to a 50 percent appreciation rate since January 2000 for a typical home in the subject market.
While the rest of the nation shows marginal recovery in home prices, Las Vegas continues to be dragged down by a high number of foreclosures and short sales, housing analyst Larry Murphy of Las Vegas-based SalesTraq said.
Together, they account for about two-thirds of all home sales in Las Vegas.
SalesTraq reported a median existing home price of $105,000 in July, the month of Case-Shiller's data, down 12.4 percent from the previous year. The price dropped to $103,500 in August.
The key statistic in Las Vegas is the 2,596 real estate-owned sales, or bank-owned sales, at a median price of $98,000.
"With July's data we are seeing not only anticipated monthly increases, but some fairly broad improvement in the annual rates of change in home prices," David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, said in a prepared statement from New York. "While we have now seen four consecutive months of generally increasing prices, we do know that we are still far from a sustained recovery. Continued increases in home prices through the end of the year and better annual results must materialize before we can confirm a housing market recovery."
Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.
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Hey Skipsdog! You have a GREAT imagination!
Victory for the Sub-Prime borrowers, most who continue living for Free. Disaster for the Prime or Conservative borrowers who lost money and continue to lose value in their Home due to the Sub-Primers, most of stratetically default or never paid at all.
Photo reminds me of African wildebeests gathered around a shrinking water hole.
Chope and hange at work in the valley!
We have Reid, Obama and Berkeley all working on the problems so--I'm sure by this time next year..there will be some REAL bargains to be had!
Better buy now--because--in 405 days--things will start to change..
I am wondering, does anyone have any ideas how to turn this mess around? What could possibly be done at this point to create jobs, revive the housing industry? This country is falling to the ranks of a 3rd world country, get used to it. But one thing we can ge assured of, the rich will continue to get richer while the middle class falls down the toilet.
Just wait until this winter. Numbers were ugly during the "Spring buying season" and are only going to get uglier. Rental inventory is skyrocketing and investors will in turn offer lower prices in order to get the same return on their investment. Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/lasvegascollapse?feature=mhee for unbiased real estate updates.
Get real! This economy isnt getting better for a long long time.
And Sbrooks to add to your comment - Bubba Clinton pushed the "ownership society" much more than any other President. It was also under his watch (and the guidance of Chris Dodd - D Senator from CT) that created many of the loan issues at Freddie and Fannie. Amazing how some Dims look to bash Bush when he wasn't the culprit. Oh and then you have the current administration that is still trying to pin the economic mess on Bush even though they have been in office 3 years and things are much worse than when the great messiah came into office. Oh well a little over 13 months and the community organizer will be sent back to Chicago and both houses of Congress will be in the hands of Republicans. Then we can FINALLY get this economy moving again!
mrs ed, lets educate you. Pres Jimmy Carter passed a law that was social engineered to promote loose loan qualifications. all administrations did not enforce the law. Bill clinton dusted it off and started enforcing it. So did George bush. the law was passed by a democratic congress.
Bush's "ownership society" plan crashed the housing market. Bush pushed home ownership on unqualified people. Sandoval said he was going to bring jobs, he does not even do his own, he gets some guy named Dale to do everything for him.
Bush, June 17, 2002, saying that not enough minorities have houses:
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020617-2.html
Look at the data for yourself, Bush lied, the housing market died.