According to the Standard and Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices that was released on 30 December 2008, the prices of single-family US houses in October had an eight percent slide from 2007 due to the extended recession.
From September to October 2008, the composite index of 20 cities in the US fell 2.2 percent. Based on a Reuters survey of economists, the price slide came in worse than what was anticipated.
Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard and Poor’s David M. Blitzer mentioned in a statement that as of October, the 10-City Composite Home Price Index fell 25 percent from its mid-2006 peak, and the 20-City Composite Home Price Index had a 23.4 percent decrease.
Since the Great Depression, the housing market in the US has been in the worst downturn because of the increasing supply of unsold houses, lending standard tightening, and record foreclosures that led to the decline in home prices.
Economists also believe that the country’s housing market will not start to recover unless home prices fall further until it is enough to trigger demand.
Separately, the business research firm Conference Board reported that consumer confidence slide to a record low in December 2008 as the worst job market in the last 16 years created sentiment.
Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Centre, explained that the further decline of the Consumer Confidence Index showed the steep and quick economic condition deterioration that happened in 2008’s fourth quarter.
She added that the economic outlook in general remained gloomy in the first six months of 2009, and only a very little upturn can be anticipated for the next six months.