Harney: Home Prices Are Bottoming

• July 7, 2009
• 2 Comments

by Mark Wellborn

In his Realty Times column this morning, Kenneth Harney indicated that the bottom for housing prices is near.

Pointing to the latest monthly survey from Case-Shiller and dropping mortgage rates, Harney said that, even though there is a long way to go to a full recovery, these positive signs are indicative of good things ahead.

As we reported last week, the April Case-Shiller report shows that home prices across the 20 metro regions that the index measures declined 18.1 percent from April 2008 to April 2009. That is an improvement over March when the annual national decline was 18.7 percent. The DC metropolitan area fared better than the 20-city average, with an April-to-April annual decline of 16.9 percent.

While the report is not all good news, Harney notes that “even the most bearish researchers” are saying that home prices are almost at bottom:

“Nationally, the Case-Shiller index came in slightly negative for the month overall, as did the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s home purchase price index. But even the most bearish researchers now agree: Prices are bottoming out, even in some of the hardest-hit areas.”

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/harney_home_prices_are_bottoming/1105

2 Comments

1. Jan Johnsson said at 12:31 pm on Tuesday July 7, 2009:

   Unfortunately, this cited article deals with very few facts and cherry picks numbers. Even the cherry picked numbers are negative. The most recent Case Shiller numbers still reflect the several month long hiatus in foreclosures by major banks and fannie and freddie, plus it doesn’t look at seasonality in the least. There’s no discussion of shadow inventory, which is widely regarded as massive in proportion to MLS listed inventory. Recasts and resets of option ARMS are looming and unemployment, an excellent predictor of foreclosures is increasing. The notion that house prices in most markets won’t continue to fall for at least the next year and probably the next five is in my opinion nearly fraudulent given that the most recent Case Shiller numbers actually reflect an acceleration both nationally and in DC in month to month price decreases (versus year over year).

1. rick1977 said at 2:05 pm on Tuesday July 14, 2009:

   What’s the point of forwarding patently absurd stories? Seriously: “Real estate shill calls bottom to market, yet again.” Are you trying to educate your readers or bamboozle them?

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