Lower Home Prices Helping Inventory Decline, Study Reports

A recently released report on the Altos 10-City Composite Price Index showed a decline in asking prices of 1.5% in October and 2.9% for the past three months.
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Prices of properties listed for-sale fell in 22 of 26 major markets according to the Real-Time Housing Market Report*, jointly published by Altos Research, the premier source for real-time real-estate research, and market analysis firm Real IQTM.

Asking prices fell at the fastest rate in Las Vegas - down 3.7% during October - and 7.1% over the most recent three-month period. This marks the seventh consecutive month that Las Vegas has posted the fastest rate of declining prices among major markets. Listing prices rose at the fastest rate in Denver - up 0.7% in October - followed by Houston where prices were up 0.6%. Denver and Houston are now the only markets showing three months of sequential price increases.

“The fleeting signs of price stability that we saw during the Summer have now completely vanished,” said Stephen Bedikian, partner and research director for Real IQ. “October’s stock market crash has crushed consumer confidence and housing price declines have resumed across most major markets.”

Inventory levels declined in all 26 markets. Inventory fell by the largest amounts in Boston and Charlotte with inventory contracting 7.9% and 5.7% respectively. Several other markets showed inventory declines of more than four percent for the month including: San Jose, Detroit, Houston and Phoenix.

“During October the steady trend of declining inventory continued with every single market showing a drop,” said Michael Simonsen, CEO and co-founder of Altos Research. “However, economic conditions have been eroding housing market demand faster than supply is contracting with the result that listing prices continue to fall.”

Twenty-three of 26 markets had an average days-on-market of 100 or more. The average days-on-market rose in all 26 markets. By far, the market with the slowest rate of inventory turnover was Miami at an average of 172 days-on-market. Miami has experienced the slowest market turnover in every month since September 2007. Miami’s rate of turnover is now twice as slow as San Francisco which enjoyed the fastest rate of inventory turnover at an average of 86 days-on-market.

Data in the Real-Time Housing Market Report is based on analysis of over one million properties currently listed for-sale in 26 metropolitan markets across the country. The report is the timeliest source of housing market data on current market activity.

*The report examines housing pricing, inventory levels and market conditions in 26 major U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs): Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, DC. The first report was published December 7, 2007 and is released every month. Report downloads are available at: www.altosresearch.com.