You know an economic report is bleak when the title contains dismal start. Such is the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indexes report for January 2011. The composite indexes hit new lows, with the home prices of the 20 cities composite index being down -3.1% and the composite-10 dropping -2.0% in comparison to January 2010. Literally, in the report, we have this:
We have seen all statistics bounce along their troughs; at worst, the feared double-dip recession may be materializing.
The above graph shows the composite-10 and composite-20 city home prices indexes. Prices are normalized to the year 2000, so the index value of 150 means single family housing prices have appreciated, or increased 50% since 2000 in that particular region. For the December to January percentage change, the composite-10 index is -0.9% lower and the composite-20 is -1.0%.