The Case Shiller Index released its monthly/yearly review:

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The collapse of US home prices was spread across the whole country according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes released today, while the price index compiled by federal housing regulators showed a much less dramatic decline.

The January S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city price index was down 10.7 pct from the year before, in line with expectations of a 10.5 pct decline. The January-to-December decline was 2.4 pct.

Case Shiller index? What the hell is that?
The Case Shiller index is an index based on 20 cities that follows the residential real estate market in 20 large cities in the US.  Case Shiller uses repeat sales pricing to evaluate the housing market.  It was developed by Karl Case, Robert Shiller and Allan Weiss.  Weiss obviously got the short end of the naming stick.

Why is Case Shiller Index not even close to the Fed index?
The reason it is a far cry from the fed numbers released earlier this week is that the fed OFHEO stats are adjusted based on the season and the Case Shiller Index is not.

What does the Case Shiller Index release mean for me?
Probably nothing - we already knew prices would go down as foreclosures add up.  The long short of it is, if you are looking to buy, its going to be a good time.  If you are looking to sell, you are going to be selling a good amount lower than you would have in the past few years.

Comments RSS