Home price declines continue to slow
Home price declines continue to slow
The pace in declines in home prices across the United States slowed down in May, the fourth straight monthly gain. According to Maureen Maitland, Vice President of Index Services at S&P this may indicate the real estate sector is approaching the bottom line. Home Price Index in 10 cities gathered by the Standard & Poor's /Case-Shiller went down 16.8 percent from a year ago, but rose 0.4 percent from April this year.
In the Bay Area, home prices dropped 26.1 percent from a year ago, but climbed up 1.4 percent from April this year. For the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo it was the second straight monthly increase.
According to Maureen Maitland and Patrick Newport- an economist from HIS Global Insight, rising unemployment and foreclosure rates could hold home prices down and the economy to recover. There was 391,611 foreclosure filled for the first six months in this year, 14 percent increase according to RealtyTrac of Irvine. In June, California unemployment rate was 11.6 percent when 66,500 jobs were cut according to the state's Employment Development Department. On the positive side, home prices and housing construction are increasing. Thus housing prices will touch the bottom by the end of this year if any additional economic turndowns don't occur according to the Maureen Maitland's projections.
SF Gate-7/29/2009