Data through December 2008, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show that the prices of existing single family homes across the United States continue to set record declines, a trend that prevailed throughout all of 2007 and 2008.

The decline in the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index declined 18.2% in Q4 2008 (vs Q4 2007); this was the largest in the data series’ 21-year history.

Year over year, the 10-City Index fell 19.2%, and the 20-City Composite fell 18.5%.

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December 2008 Case-Shiller

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The chart below shows that on a national basis, prices have returned to 2003 levels.

My working presumption is that these are skewed by the foreclosure driven price decreases in 4 areas: California, S. Florida, Las Vegas, and Arizona.

National Home Price Index

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Source:
Nationally, Home Price Declines Closed Out 2008 with Record Lows ^[3]
S&P, 2009-02-24 09:00:00

http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/index/CSHomePrice_Release_022445.pdf

http://www.homeprice.standardandpoors.com