Housing Double-Dip Confirmed

Tim Iacono

As if anyone (aside from housing perma-bulls) really needed confirmation that the housing double-dip is now well underway, that is, after the government stopped paying people to buy houses earlier in the year, the Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes now show a clear downward trend in home prices, the third straight month of declines for the 20-city seasonally adjusted data series as reported(.pdf) by Standard & Poor’s a few minutes ago.

There will be more on this report in just a little bit as it is one of the more important housing reports in recent months, of particular interest (to me at least) being how well the local housing market is holding up around the nation’s capital.

David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s, noted this is “another weak report; weaker than last month … there is a large supply of houses on the market and further, hidden, supply due to delinquent mortgages, pending foreclosures or vacant homes. New construction is running at less than half the pace needed to meet normal demand, so a sustained recovery could be a ways off.”