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Tampa Bay, nation show some rallying in real estate prices

Every few months, people who are interested in the real estate market turn their attention to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the most reliable measurement of home prices in the nation. 

That quarterly report came out today, and it contains some encouraging news – home prices were up in the second quarter of 2011. According to the Case-Shiller report, the U.S. National Home Price Index went up 3.6 per cent in the second quarter. In the previous quarter, the one ended at the end of March, the Home Price Index was down 4.1 percent. 

Any bad news in this report? Well, while the second quarter was up from the first quarter, it was down 5.9 percent when compared to the second quarter of 2010, one year ago. 

Nationally, home prices are about where they were in early 2003. 

Case-Shiller comes up with its national figures by keeping track of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas. One of those areas is Tampa Bay. Pinellas County real estate is not considered on its own, but the Tampa Bay real estate numbers should be very close to our own here in Pinellas County. 

Tampa Bay has taken a worse-than-average hit when it comes to home values for the quarter. Values are down seven per cent in this most recent quarter when compared to a year ago. That’s more than a percentage point more than the national average. 

Not as bad as such places as Minneapolis or Portland, Ore. or Phoenix, but worse than such cities as New York, Boston or Washington DC. 

“This month’s report showed mixed signals for recovery in home prices,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “No cities made new lows in June 2011, and the majority of cities are seeing improved annual rates.” 

Blitzer said the numbers show that regional markets have to be considered as separate entities – the national housing market is not rising or falling as one. So don’t simply go by whatever national real estate figures you see in the newspaper — remember that values of Pinellas County real estate may be quite different.

You can see the Case-Shiller news release here.

Tags: case-shiller, home values, Pinellas County real estate, Tampa Bay

Don’t pack your bags just yet

Looking at those shiny new light rail cars in the previous post, you may be thinking that a move to that part of the world wouldn’t be such a bad idea. But before you start packing, consider this little tidbit.
Standard & Poor’s puts out a monthly report on home values through its Case/Shiller Home Price Indices, a fancy term for something that S&P calls “the leading measure of U.S. home prices.” It looks at home values in 20 different markets around the nation.
So guess which market has lost the most value during the past year? That’s right, Phoenix. Home prices in that area have slipped more than 32 per cent, more than anywhere else in the country.
Where is Tampa Bay in all of that? Homes in this area have dropped a little under 20 per cent — a good-sized drop, but well below the crash-and-burn experience in Phoenix. Or, for that matter, in Las Vegas, which was second on the S&P list at 31.7 per cent; or Miami, which lost 29 per cent of its real estate value (and led the Florida lost-value sweepstakes).
There’s more, if you’d like to look it over. Just visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

Tags: home values

Real estate values down big-time during 2008

Just how much can we expect national real estate values to deflate during 2008, once the year comes to an end in the next couple of weeks? One national real estate organization that tracks such things believes the loss will amount to more than $2 trillion — that’s “trillion,” with a “T.”
Zillow is an organization that follows and keeps track of real estate values in the different regions of the country. It says that real estate values in the U.S. declined $1.9 trillion in the first three quarters of the year.
What does that mean? Zillow says it means that 11.7 million households now owe more on their home mortgages than their homes are actually worth. One in seven of all homeowners were upside-down on their mortgages at the end of the third quarter.
That means negative equity, falling values and increasing numbers of forclosures.
Is there any good news in all this? Well, some. First time homeowners are looking at property and buying, and rates continue to be good. Locally, home sales seem to have leveled off. But with so much bad news in so many sectors of the economy, it’s still a time for caution.

Tags: Add new tag, home values, mortgages