Other recent housing reports, meanwhile, have shown mixed signals. Single-family housing starts ticked up in May, though they are still well below year-ago levels, and sales of existing and new homes dipped in May. The chairman of Standard & Poor's index committee, David Blitzer, indicated that it's much too early to tell if the uptick in April sales was evidence of a turning point in the market or just a blip caused by warmer weather. He indicated that several more months of increasing prices would be needed to call it a sign of recovery.
According to the S&P / Case-Shiller home price index, prices were still down about 4 percent compared to last year, marking the largest year-to-year drop in the index in 10 months. Of the 20 metro areas tallied in the index, only Washington D.C. Posted a gain over last year, of 4 percent. Real estate insiders have stated they expect prices to fall another 5 percent this year before the market reaches a bottom, at the earliest, next year. And Zillow president Stan Humphries said he expects it to take another two to four years after the market bottoms before prices begin to rise.
Since the housing bubble burst in 2006, home prices have fallen some 33 percent. That represents a bigger drop in property values than that seen during the great Depression. Lower-priced homes have been and will continue to be among the most affected by price drops. Since 2007, lower-end home prices have fallen 45 percent, compared to just 25 percent for pricier homes.
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