S&P: Dallas-area home prices down 3.3%

S&P: Dallas-area home prices down 3.3%

11:57 AM CST on Tuesday, January 27, 2009
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com

Dallas home prices dipped by more than 3 percent in the latest gauge of nationwide home values.

But Dallas' decline in November from a year earlier was the lowest of any U.S. market in the closely-watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

Nationwide home prices dropped by a record 18.2 percent in the monthly report while Dallas prices fell by only 3.3 percent, according to the report released early Tuesday.

“The freefall in residential real estate continued through November 2008,” S&P's David M. Blitzer said in the report.

It was the 28th consecutive month of nationwide price declines.

In the Dallas area, prices peaked in June 2007. Since then, they've declined by about 6 percent.

Phoenix, with a decline of 32.9 percent, and Las Vegas, down 31.6 percent, had the biggest annual declines in the just-released Case-Shiller report.

The survey tracks the prices of typical single-family homes located in each metropolitan area. The index survey does not include condominiums and townhouses. It only covers pre-owned properties – no new construction.

The Case-Shiller researchers compare sales of specific single-family homes over time.

The November Dallas price decline was in line with other recent studies which show that overall home prices in North Texas have fallen only slightly in the last year.

Along with Dallas, the lowest U.S. home price declines were reported in Denver (-4.3 percent) and Charlotte (-5.3 percent).

S&P/CASE-SHILLER HOME PRICE INDEX
Metropolitan area November 1-year change
Atlanta -11.2%
Boston -7.4%
Charlotte -5.3%
Chicago -12.5%
Cleveland -5.2%
Dallas -3.3%
Denver -4.3%
Detroit -20.7%
Las Vegas -31.6%
Los Angeles -26.9%
Miami -28.7%
Minneapolis -16.3%
New York -8.6%
Phoenix -32.9%
Portland -11.5%
San Diego -25.8%
San Francisco -30.8%
Seattle -11.2%
Tampa -20.9%
Washington -19.4%
Composite-20 city -18.2%