Standard & Poor’s shared less-than-optimistic news with homeowners this week when the latest S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price Indices report showed home prices dropping significantly in the company’s latest October report.
According to the S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price Indices, the 10-city composite—which measures home price fluctuations in certain metro areas—fell 6.7-percent annually and reached a new record low. Meanwhile, the 20-city composite index fell 6.1-percent when compared to last year.

“No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim,” said Robert Shiller, chief economist of MacroMarkets LLC. “Not only did the 10-City Composite post a record low in its annual growth rate, but 11 of the 20 metro areas did the same. If you look at the monthly figures, every MSA went down in both October and September. Eleven of the 20 MSAs, in addition to the two composites, recorded their single largest monthly decline on record in October. For both the 10-city and 20-city composites that was a decline of 1.4-percent over September.”
In the report, researchers pointed out that some of the declines have made this latest report somewhat concerning. Not only did the city of Miami experience a 12.4-percent decline in housing prices, it surpassed the city of Tampa which experienced an 11.8-percent drop over last year.
Even markets that have maintained an element of stability are feeling a slight pinch, according to the report.
Dallas, which has remained steady throughout the housing crunch, experienced a 0.1-percent decline in housing prices. Atlanta—another Steady Eddy—experienced a 0.7-percent decline in single-family housing prices.