Case Shiller Report 2/23/2010 for December 2009

Is it just me or does the Case Shiller report track stale data.  It's usually 60 days old, which is far too long in this real estate market to go without information.  The truth, however, is that many markets & analysts follow this index, so let's see what we can learn from it for December 2009 and the Portland Oregon marketplace.

1. The change from October to November was 0.3% appreciation while the November to December change was -0.3% depreciation (a 0.6% swing)
2. The calendar year 2009 saw -5.4% decline in prices which is somewhat different from the RMLS figure (a rolling average) of -12.1%.
3. Nationwide, home values are back to 2003 levels and show a record low decline of 19.1% from 1Q2009

This begs the question:  Have we hit bottom?  It remains to be seen what will happen with mortgage backed securities, lending practices, changes in regulation, and many other factors. Truth be told, we are a supply and demand business and each neighborhood & property type will have different numbers. It pays to... 

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