Economic ripples

Posted at 12:15 PM on October 28, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

The sales price of homes has fallen again. The Standard & Poor's Case/Schiller Index for August was released today, showing home prices falling about 1 percent in 20 metropolitan cities.

"The downturn in residential real estate prices continued, with very few bright spots in the data," David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's, said in the statement.

The index is particularly fascinating because it measures the sales price of a home, compared to the last time it was sold.

Minneapolis is one of the metro cities measured, and registered a 14% drop in home prices from a year earlier, but declined only 1% from July to August. According to the index, home resale prices had been rising since April. Home resale prices are now about what they were in May 2003. By comparison, home resale prices in America's basket case -- Detroit -- are what they were in 1999.

Here's the spreadsheet if you'd like to play.

Teresa Boardman has a chart on her blog today showing a closing gap between the number of houses being listed, and the number selling.

The sour economy has hit northern Minnesota today with the announcement from Cleveland Cliffs that three taconite furnaces on the Iron Range are being shut down, as the demand for steel has waned.

Little wonder, given the news of the last month, that a survey of consumer confidence has revealed it is at its lowest ever.

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Comments (2)

Bob - I'm one of those odd ducks that likes to "play" with the numbers. But I don't think your link is working.

Posted by Mike | October 28, 2008 8:19 PM

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Mike: Try it now.

Posted by Bob Collins | October 29, 2008 7:10 AM

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