Case-Shiller Price Index Gains, Sort Of

Posted: July 28, 2009 at 9:10 am

Money Stack ImageThe Case-Shiller housing price data is a lower-impact housing number because of the notion that the data is older than some other reports already on the market.  This morning’s data for May 2009 did show a fourth month in a row of improvement, but prices are still dropping on a year-over-year basis.  The reading came down by -17.1% in May for the 20-city reading and -16.8% for the 10-city index.  If you compare May to April, there were 16 of 20 markets that were either flat or up.  The 20-city index showed a reading of +0.5% sequentially from April, while the 10-city index showed a 0.4% gain sequentially.

Unfortunately, this is a rear view mirror read even for a lagging economic indicator.  We saw new home sales data and prices for June yesterday, and this data from the Case-Shiller is from May.  Again, this is like celebrating a birthday by taking a kid to pick out any gift of their choice…. at the dollar store.

JON C. OGG
JULY 28, 2009

Read more: Economy, Housing
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