The housing market is mired in trouble, "with plummeting prices and slumping sales," according to an article in today's edition of The New York Times by David Streitfeld.
"First-time buyers are fleeing, sellers are frustrated, buildings and depressed and lenders are skittish about making new loans," the article continued.
"'The numbers are gloomy, no question,' said the economist Karl E. Case. 'We're bounding along a rocky bottom.' And that, he said, is the optimistic view. 'Others think we're falling off another cliff,' Mr. Case said."
For the sixth consecutive month, housing prices slid in January, "putting them barely above the lows reached in the depths of the recession two years ago," the article said, adding that the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 20 large cities declined 1 percent from December, putting the slide fro its 2006 peak at 31.8 percent."
Eleven cities, including New York, Miami, Tampa and Charlotte, North Carolina, hit a new low for the downturn, the report said, noting that New York prices have "fallen 23 percent from their peak."
Meanwhile, the article said, the Conference Board said yesterday that its consumer confidence index tumbled 8.6 percent in March, the first drop in six months and the largest of the year and only 15 percent of respondents though their incomes would increase over the next six months.
An article in today's Wall Street Journal by S. Mitra Kalita said that "housing prices across the U. S. continued falling in January, raising fears of a double dip in the home-buying market and a longer slog toward recovery than once expected."
Average sale prices of single-family homes in 20 major metropolitan areas fell 3.1 percent from a year ago, according to the Case-Shiller Index. "The housing-market recession is not yet over, and none of he statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery," declared David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's.
Only two cities, San Diego and Washington, recorded price increases year over year, the report said.
"First-time buyers are fleeing, sellers are frustrated, buildings and depressed and lenders are skittish about making new loans," the article continued.
"'The numbers are gloomy, no question,' said the economist Karl E. Case. 'We're bounding along a rocky bottom.' And that, he said, is the optimistic view. 'Others think we're falling off another cliff,' Mr. Case said."
For the sixth consecutive month, housing prices slid in January, "putting them barely above the lows reached in the depths of the recession two years ago," the article said, adding that the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 20 large cities declined 1 percent from December, putting the slide fro its 2006 peak at 31.8 percent."
Eleven cities, including New York, Miami, Tampa and Charlotte, North Carolina, hit a new low for the downturn, the report said, noting that New York prices have "fallen 23 percent from their peak."
Meanwhile, the article said, the Conference Board said yesterday that its consumer confidence index tumbled 8.6 percent in March, the first drop in six months and the largest of the year and only 15 percent of respondents though their incomes would increase over the next six months.
An article in today's Wall Street Journal by S. Mitra Kalita said that "housing prices across the U. S. continued falling in January, raising fears of a double dip in the home-buying market and a longer slog toward recovery than once expected."
Average sale prices of single-family homes in 20 major metropolitan areas fell 3.1 percent from a year ago, according to the Case-Shiller Index. "The housing-market recession is not yet over, and none of he statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery," declared David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's.
Only two cities, San Diego and Washington, recorded price increases year over year, the report said.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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