S&P/Case-Shiller® September Home-Price Index

The S&P/Case Shiller® composite index for the month of September was released yesterday.

"'Home prices drifted lower in September and the third quarter,' says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. 'The National Index was down 3.9% versus the third quarter of 2010 and up only 0.1% from the previous quarter. Three cities posted new index lows in September 2011 -- Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Seventeen of the 20 cities and both Composites were down for the month. Over the last year home prices in most cities drifted lower. The plunging collapse of prices seen in 2007-2009 seems to be behind us. Any chance for a sustained recovery will probably need a stronger economy.'

'Detroit and Washington DC posted positive annual rates of change and also saw an improvement in these rates compared to August. Only New York, Portland and Washington DC posted positive monthly returns versus August. It is a bit disturbing that we saw three cities post new crisis lows. For the prior three or four months, only Las Vegas was weakening each month. Now Atlanta and Phoenix have fallen to new lows too. On a monthly basis, Atlanta actually posted a record low rate of -5.9% in September over August. The markets are fairly thin, and the relative lack of closed transactions might be exacerbating the downside. The relative good news is that 14 cities saw improvements in their annual rates of change, versus the six that weakened.'"

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 11/28/2011

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 11/23/2011

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I saw this listing today. I assume this is for people who feel insecure without a garage under them at any point.

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 11/22/2011

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China Property Dip Sparks Bank Fears.

Northern Virginia Inventory Update

Here's an inventory update -- the statistics are from Virginia MLS. It's a little quirky -- I read it from right to left. It begins in March 2005 and ends on November 1, 2011. Available inventory on November 21st was 7,069, a significant decrease from the beginning of the month.

Here's the link to the whole spreadsheet.

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 11/15/2011

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Northern Virginia's October Housing Sales

Northern Virginia's October 2011 housing sales were down 13.4% YoY, and median prices were up 2.6% to $347,750. The average days on the market increased by 18% to 66 days.

(The above statistics include Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax City, Fairfax County, Falls Church City, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, Manassas City, Manassas Park City, and Prince William County).

Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 11/4/2011

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Northern Virginia Bits Bucket 11/1/2011

Please post your local house search updates, MLS finds, on-topic ideas, and links here.