Source : Business Times – 28 Jul 2009
US single-family home prices rose in May from April, the first monthly increase in nearly three years, suggesting prices may be stabilising, according to Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller home price indexes on Tuesday.
The annual rate of decline for the 10- and 20-city indexes improved for the fourth straight month, though prices have still tumbled by more than 32 per cent from the peaks in the second quarter of 2006.
The index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 0.5 per cent in May from April, after a 0.6 per cent decline the month before, in contrast with the 0.5 per cent drop forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.
The May monthly rise resulted in an annual downturn of 17.1 per cent, although this was the fourth straight month that the rate of decline slowed. This follows a 16-month string of record annual declines starting in October 2007 and ending in January.
S&P said its index of 10 metropolitan areas rose 0.4 per cent in May after a 0.7 per cent drop in April, for an 16.8 per cent year-over-year drop.
‘To put it in perspective, this is the first time we have seen broad increases in home prices in 34 months,’ David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P, said in a statement. ‘This could be an indication that home price declines are finally stabilising’.
The 10 and 20-city indexes reported positive returns for the first time since summer of 2006.
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