Bilibala: recovery in house market is slowly taking place. Since house is a huge investment to most indvidual, rebuild confidence can be slow, but once it set, the sales & price growth will accelerate. I think USA house market will back to normal in 2016. Of course, it depends on interest rate and the economy by that time.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704188104575083234096597738.html?mod=WSJ_PersonalFinance_RealEstate
For the fourth quarter, the S&P Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index posted a 2.5% decrease from a year earlier, a significant easing from the 19%, 15% and 8.7% declines in the rest of 2009. It fell 1.1% sequentially but rose 0.3% adjusting for seasonal factors.
The indexes showed prices in 10 major metropolitan areas fell 2.4% in December from a year earlier, while the index for 20 major metropolitan areas dropped 3.1%. Both indexes dropped 0.2% from the previous month, although adjusted for seasonal factors, they increased 0.3%.
David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, said that the housing market is "definitely in better shape" and that the pace of deterioration has stabilized. But the rate of improvement seen during the summer hasn't survived.
"We are in a seasonally slow period for home prices, however, so it is not surprising to see better statistics in the seasonally adjusted data, where 14 of the markets and the two monthly composites all rose in December," he said.
Nationally, home prices are at levels similar to summer of 2003.
Compared with a year earlier, Las Vegas continued to be hit the hardest, posting a drop of 21% in home prices. Tampa and Detroit followed with declines of 11% and 10%, respectively. The best year-on-year performer was San Francisco, which posted a 4.8% climb.
Month-to-month gainers were led by Los Angeles, which rose 1%. Chicago again fared worst, falling 1.6%.
Recovery in the U.S. housing market has been fragile. Demand for new and used homes, after strengthening in earlier months, dropped in December because of cold weather and continuing joblessness. Though housing starts sprang up again in January, an indicator of future groundbreaking fell. In addition, buyers sought to wrap up home purchases before a federal tax credit was set to expire in November, pulling some sales in earlier.
Write to Joan E. Solsman at joan.solsman@dowjones.com
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