We are continuously tracking the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which examines the rise and fall of single family home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas of the United States and have designed our own chart to offer a useful analysis of the data as soon as it is released each month.
The chart is designed to track single family home prices in the New York City area, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and the Case Shiller Index of the 10 major metropolitan areas. We also include a trend line that shows how the index for the 10 major metro areas would have changed if home prices had appreciated at the historically expected 5% (See this Freddie Mac analysis of long term home price trends Whither Home Values) . Our “normal” trend line starts at January 1993 and increases prices annually at 5%.
The figures for December 2010 have now been released on February 22, 2011. The unadjusted index continues to decline both nationally and in all but two of the twenty markets tracked around the country. The New York metro area has declined to the prices that prevailed in March of 2004.
Click here for a larger version of the chart.
SP_Case_Shiller_Home_Price_Indices gives more detail on the elements of the index.
