Record declines in prices for existing single-family homes continued in November, as the nation continued to experience a significant slowdown in home sales activity.
November marked the 11th consecutive month of negative annual returns and two full years of decelerating returns, according to the indices released today from S&P/Case-Shiller.
A monthly 10-city composite index showed an annual decline of 8.4 percent, a new record low, while a monthly 20-city composite index recorded an annual decline of 7.7 percent.
The metro areas tracked in the Composite-20 Index include: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.
All but three cities in the 20-city index showed year-over-year price declines in November. The cities with the highest year-over-year declines were: Miami, with a 15.1 percent decline; San Diego, with a 13.4 percent decline; Las Vegas, with a 13.2 percent decline; Detroit, with a 13 percent decline; and Phoenix, with a 12.9 percent decline.
The cities that showed positive annual growth rates were Charlotte, N.C., with a 2.9 percent growth rate; Seattle, with 1.8 percent; and Portland, Ore., with 1.3 percent.
“We reached another grim milestone in the housing market in November,” Robert J. Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and co-founder of the index, said Tuesday. “Not only did the 10-city composite (index) post another record low in its annual growth rate, but 13 of the 20 metro areas, with data back to 1991, did the same.”
The latest monthly figures show that every metro area tracked has now posted three consecutive monthly declines, Shiller added. “Eight of these MSAs, in addition to the two composites, have had more than 12 consecutive months of falling prices,” he said.
Fourteen of the 20 metro areas, in addition to the two composites, recorded their largest monthly decline on record in November, he said. For the 10-city and 20-city composites this was a decline of 2.2 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, over October.
