Released today, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller price index of 20 U.S. cities showed a surprising and substantial drop -- 19 percent in January from January 2008 -- the largest annual decrease on record. This comes after reports from the National Association of Realtors that home sales in February were up 5.1 percent from the month before and from the Commerce Department that new-home sales increased 4.7 percent in February from January.
From the look of the new Case-Shiller index, it will be quite some time before the housing market is back on its feet -- despite the previous, more positive reports on home sales.
Every city in the 20-city index showed an annual price decline, while 13 cities posted record drops, says the Associated Press.
"There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data," David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, is quoted in the AP story. "Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path."—Lauren Baier Kim