Case-Shiller Single-Family Price Index

Case-Shiller reports monthly on single-family homes in the 20 top markets. Their latest report was for data from October, 2007.

It shows how much prices have fallen or risen on a one-year rolling basis. So, here's some figures to chew on:

City Percent Prices Down

Miami -12

Tampa -11

San Diego -11

Detroit -11

Las Vegas -10

Phoenix -10

Chicago -3

And of the top 20, the following were up

Charlotte +4

Seattle +3

Portland +2

And Crain's Chicago Business Editor, Ann Dwyer, reported that their research people showed a 51% decline in the Chicago Metro sales from the 4th quarter 2007 from the 4th quarter 2006. The number of reported sales for the quarter was 2200 units!

Chicago up to now had seen very little in the way of declines. However, that is changing and there is now weakness in the entire metropolitan area. They expect the next two quarters to be "heading into a rough patch."

All of these research studies look backward. So, I wonder, will we be able to see improvement? And, will we be ready?