Home Prices May Be Nearing a New Dip By DAVID STREITFELD and JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
Published: November 24, 2009
Home prices are enduring an early winter chill, raising the odds that the economy may suffer another jolt while it is still weak.
Two price indexes released Tuesday indicated that the momentum the housing market showed over the late spring and summer is faltering, even as the government said the economy grew at a slower pace in the third quarter than previously reported.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, a closely watched measure of the housing markets in 20 metropolitan areas, barely rose in September, rising 0.3 percent from August on a seasonally adjusted basis. Prices fell for the month in nine cities in the index, including Boston, New York, Seattle and Charlotte, N.C.
A report from the Federal Housing Financing Agency showed that prices were flat in September from August.
Real estate, which has traditionally brought the economy out of recession, seems increasingly likely this time to hold it back. The housing market’s epic boom early this decade has turned into an epic bust whose effects may take years to shake off. .............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/business/economy/25home.html?_r=1&hpw