- Obama Says Will Raise Currency Issue with China
- Look Ahead: 'Risk On' Attitude Could Fuel Rally Further
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- Buffett to Sell Stakes in Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific
- Cramer: 5 Stocks to Play the Next Bull Run
- Do You Know Your Coca-Cola Myths?
- Electronic Arts Beats Street, Announces 1,500 Job Cuts
- Time Is Here to Look at Overseas Stocks: Bill Gross
- Home Prices Start to Stabilize In the US as Sales Pick Up
- Why Google is Paying $750 Million for Ad Mob
- Warren Buffett to Sell Stakes In Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern
- Nov. 9: Unusual Volume Leaders
- The Battered Businesses Behind Housing
- Modern Warfare 2's Record-Breaking Launch
- Merck’s Mega-Monday Morning
- Why are Traders Bullish on This Food Company?
- Profiting From Natural Gas: Strategists
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
MOST SHARED
- Future of Marketing
- Dow Up Over 100 After G20 Stimulus Pledge
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- Oil Tomorrow
- Dow Industrials at New Highs—But Other Indices Lag
- Obama Says Will Raise Currency Issue with China
- Priceline Crushes Profit Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Trial of Ex-Bear Stearns Managers Goes to Jury
- A Year on, China's Stimulus Postpones its Problems
Text Size 
The decline in prices of existing U.S. single-family homes accelerated in August and fell at their fastest pace since 1991, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller national home price index.
S&P said its composite month-over-month index of 10 major metropolitan areas declined 0.8 percent in August to 214.35, for a 5 percent year-over-year drop, S&P said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The fall in home prices is showing no real signs of a slowdown or turnaround," Robert Shiller, founder of the indexes and chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC, said in a statement.
The 10 city index fell 0.5 percent in July from June. The worst annual decline in the index was a 6.3 percent drop in April 1991.
The month-over-month index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 0.7 percent to 197.16 in August from July, bringing the measure down 4.4 percent from the year-ago period.
Housing Slump Worsened
Both indexes have registered falling prices for the past year as soaring inventories of homes and tight lending conditions worsened the housing slump.
The credit crisis deepened in August when defaults on risky loans drove investors away from securities which fund lending to even the best-rated borrowers.
Tampa and Detroit registered the steepest yearly price drops of 10.1 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively, according to the index.
Tampa and seven other regions including Miami, Las Vegas, San Diego and Washington had their lowest recorded annual returns in August, it said.
Home prices are likely to register a record 7 percent year-over-year drop by December, according to economists at Goldman Sachs.
Such declines would have to be paired with 0.5 to 1 percentage point drops in mortgage rates to boost affordability measures to those preceding and during the housing boom, other economists said.
Print
Email
- Do free market libertarians really believe what they say about ethics and shareholder value? The Big Money takes a look.
- Cramer did the research and found eight stocks that lead the pack. Read on to get his top picks.
- On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, many in the former Eastern Bloc recall communism fondly.
- Software, biotech firms, even banks are watching a particular Supreme Court argument today.
- From politicians to CEOs to companies, here's your chance to vote for the winners and losers of 2009.
- A new sinister Internet viruses can turn you into an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes