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

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

"'While there has been improvement in some regions, housing prices have not turned,' says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. 'This month’s report saw all three composites and five cities hit new lows. However, with last month’s report nine cities hit new lows. Further, about half as many cities, seven, experienced falling prices this month compared to 16 last time.'

'...The regions showed mixed results for March. Twelve of the cities saw average home prices rise in March over February, seven saw prices fall and one – Las Vegas – was flat. The Composites were largely unchanged with the 10-City down only 0.1% and the 20-City unchanged. After close to six consecutive months of price declines across most cities, this is relatively good news. We just need to see it happen in more of the cities and for many months in a row. Since we are entering a seasonal buying period, it becomes very important to look at both monthly and annual rates of change in home prices in order to understand the broader trend going forward.'"

Northern Virginia Housing Inventory Update

Here's a housing inventory update -- the statistics are from Virginia MLS. It begins in March 2005 and ends on May 16, 2012. Available May inventory down from last year. These inventory numbers do not account for the sales rate, so they are quite rough, but they do have a connection to price movements in our area.

Here's the link to the whole spreadsheet.

Northern Virginia's April Housing Sales

Northern Virginia's April 2012 housing sales were up 11% YoY, and median prices were up 6.7% to $384,250. The average days on the market decreased 14% to 54 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).

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

The S&P/Case Shiller® composite index for the month of February was released on April 24th.

"'While there might be pieces of good news in this report, such as some improvement in many annual rates of return, February 2012 data confirm that, broadly-speaking, home prices continued to decline in the early months of the year,' says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. 'Nine MSAs -- Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Las Vegas, New York, Portland, Seattle and Tampa -- and both Composites hit new post-crisis lows. Atlanta continued its downward spiral, posting its lowest annual rate of decline in the 20-year history of the index at -17.3%. The 10-City Composite declined 3.6% and the 20-City was down 3.5% compared to February 2011.'"