Housing Market Update
HOUSING MARKET UPDATE....The good news: home prices in Charlotte, NC, were up 1.8% in January. Woot! The bad news: every other city is declining:
A widely-watched index of U.S. home prices fell 11.4% in January, its steepest drop since data for the indicator was first collected in 1987.For anybody waiting around to get a good deal on a house, this is good news. For the economy as a whole, not so good.....The broader 20-city composite index also fell, dropping 10.7% in January from a year ago. That makes it the first time both indexes dropped by double-digit percentages.
....[David Blitzer, index committee chairman at S&P,] said all 20 cities S&P tracks have seen dropping prices for five consecutive months. What's more, the declines are growing in severity, with 13 of the 20 cities reporting their biggest single monthly decline in January.