More grim news for the housing market
TEXT OF STORY
Bob Moon: We already mentioned the record slide in home prices. What we didn’t tell you is that prices fell so far in the past year that they’re now where they were in 2004 — three years of gains down the tubes.
Which raises the question: Is this the bottom we’ve all been waiting for?
From Miami, Marketplace’s Dan Grech reports.
Dan Grech: Housing prices nationwide plummeted 15 percent in the past year, a new record. Bubble towns fell sharpest: Las Vegas and Miami led the nation with free falls of 27 percent.
Maureen Maitland: Other downturns in the home market in the past seem relatively minor compared to this. What we’re seeing here is an unprecedented market.
Maureen Maitland is a vice president at Standard & Poor’s, which publishes the Case-Shiller index. Prices were down in all 20 major markets surveyed, including Charlotte, North Carolina, the last holdout.
Maitland: The fact is we’re seeing it nationwide, so there’s no one market that’s holding up another to keep the national average higher.
Some areas, like Chicago and Denver, saw prices rise slightly in April compared to March, but if you’re thinking this could be the bottom, you’re a little early.
Jack McCabe runs a housing research firm in South Florida.
Jack McCabe: The folks that wanna call a bottom right now are calling a false bottom and they’re usually vested interests that want to see the market turn as quick as possible.
Most experts think home prices will keep falling through 2009.
Charles R. Morris is author of “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown.”
Charles R. Morris: Most analysts now think the home price fall will be 25-30 percent. That would mean we’ve got another full year of this kind of drop yet to go.
Morris says this is payback for a 12 year bull run in the housing market.
In Miami, I’m Dan Grech for Marketplace.
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