From cnbc.com:
U.S. single-family home prices rose for the first time in 10 months, in an encouraging sign the battered sector is starting to stabilize, a closely watched survey said on Tuesday.
The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.2 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, matching economists’ forecasts. It was the first time prices have gained since April 2011. That gain was itself an anomaly in a string of declines stretching back to May 2010.
Still, David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s, cautioned that while there were some pieces of good news in the report, some areas still continued to decline.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the 20-city index was down 0.8 percent at 134.20, the lowest since October 2002. Seven of the cities saw prices drop on a seasonally adjusted basis, while two cities were unchanged.
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San Diego Case-Shiller Index
| SD CSI | Feb11 | Jan12 | Feb12 | YOY% | MOM% |
| SeaAdj | 157.52 | 150.49 | 151.47 | -3.8% | +0.7% |
| Non-SA | 155.05 | 148.74 | 149.07 | -3.9% | +0.2% |
The actual change is just noise, but casual observers might think that “things are getting better”. Every little bit helps?
I find it odd that case shiller keeps coming out and saying home prices are still falling. It must be the higher end still coming down in a lot of areas. The lower end of the markets I follow are all doing quite well.
Look at the spin by the media.
I copied the initial cnbc.com story, which said,
“U.S. single-family home prices rose for the first time in 10 months, in an encouraging sign the battered sector is starting to stabilize, a closely watched survey said on Tuesday.”
Fifteen minutes later they changed their story to this:
Home prices dropped in February in most major U.S. cities for a sixth straight month, a sign that modest sales gains haven’t been enough to boost prices.
They also added this:
The steepest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Cleveland. Prices rose in Phoenix, San Diego and Miami. They were unchanged in Dallas.
Prices didn’t rise, the index rose.
The media doesnt know what is going on out on the streets. They are always way behind on the real news.
The MSM is a total joke, especially the bobbleheads on CNBC… good for entertainment purposes only.
Do you wonder why this country is screwed up? From their website:
In business news, CNBC is the recognized world leader, providing real-time financial news coverage, stock futures information, pre-market data and business information to more than 340 million homes worldwide, including more than 95 million households in the United States and Canada.
Viewers of CNBC business news programming are business executives and financial professionals that have significant purchasing power. According to a July 2004 survey by Mendelsohn Media Research, the median household net worth of CNBC Business Day viewer exceeds $1.2 million.
Well apparently those high net worth individuals are taking CNBC’s down view as a contrarian indicator. Seems like high downs/all cash rule the upper tier markets and investors are all over the cheap rental properties right now.
At least we’re getting the first signs of the spring bounce. Jim’s December bottom call is still in tack since the current Case Shiller Represents the average of Dec, Jan, Feb while last month was Nov, Dec, Jan. Because of the 3 month average I’d call this report the January Case shiller because it’s the mid point, but media likes to call it Feb to make it more relevant.
CR has some nice graphs today re price/rent ratio and how we are back to 1999 levels.
Notice how after each recession there is a long bottom/flat trend……for those of us trying to time the market I don’t think you will see a quick recovery until there has been a flat line along the bottom. The graphs as they stand look to be going nowhere but down???
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/04/real-house-prices-and-price-to-rent.html
anon,
those price/rent are inflation and interest rate adjusted. Prices could stagnate for quite a while or fall if interest rates reflect a recovery.
If they stay low, we could see prices rising, but if they rise in the face of interest rate increases, we’re climbing the wall of worry.
Chuck