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Existing Home Prices Drop In August

First Year-to-Year Decline Since 1995

September 26, 2006

Mortgage Crisis? Act Now to Avoid Foreclosure • Avoiding Foreclosure Takes More Than Hope --- • Home Prices Fall, But News Is Less Bad For Homeowners • Marketing Analysis Suggests Housing Bottom • Mortgage Rates Dip As Inflation Fears Ease • Have Mortgage Rates Hit Bottom? • Ex-Countrywide CEO Faces Fraud Charges • Pending Home Sales Surge in April • Foreclosure Starts Hit 1 Million For the Year • Mortgage Delinquencies At Record High • Existing Home Sales Rise in April • U.S. Home Values Now 32 Percent Below Their Peak • Bankruptcy Not Helping People Keep Their Homes • Home Values Plunge 14 Percent In First Quarter • One In Five Homeowners Underwater • Pending Home Sales Turn Around In March • Senate Defeats Mortgage 'Cram Down' Bill • Mortgage Rates Keep Falling • Home Sales Fall in March • Home Prices Show Surprising Gain in February • Foreclosures Up 9% in First Quarter • Southern California Home Sales Up Again in March • Mortgage Applications Rise Sharply • Obama Administration Targets Mortgage Fraud • Homeowners Still Behind On Modified Mortgages • Consumers Fall Further Behind on Loan Payments • Pending Home Sales Show Some Life • Home Prices Down To 2003 Levels in January • Fed Action Spurs Refinance Frenzy • Existing Home Sales Jump Five Percent in One Month • California Authorities Arrest "Loan Modification" Scam Artists • Southern California Home Sales Up Again • Loan Modifications Can Reduce Foreclosures, Study Says • Scammers Use Forged Bank Letterhead to Con California Consumers • Foreclosure Activity Up Six Percent in February • States Battle Feds To Enforce Lending Laws • Mortgage Delinquencies Continue to Climb • Obama Begins Mortgage Rescue Program • One Of Five U.S. Mortgages Under Water • Florida Court Blocks Loan Modification Company's Fees --- • More ...

There's good news for prospective home buyers in the latest existing home sales figures from the National Association of Realtors. In August, the median sale price for all existing houses fell 1.7 percent to $225,000, the first year-over-year decline since 1995.

Economists seized on the figures as more evidence the housing boom has ended.

While the number of sales nationwide was higher than expected, the median price dropped faster than many predicted. The real estate industry, meanwhile, put the best possible spin on the report.

"This is the price correction we've been expecting -- with sales stabilizing, we should go back to positive price growth early next year," said David Lereah, the NAR's chief economist.

But others are not so sure. One housing industry analyst said the speed of housing's price collapse has been "astonishing" and suggested both prices and sales volumes have more ground to lose.

The Western U.S. was the only region to report an increase in August's median sale price, as the median sale price inched up to $345,000.

The median sales price in the Northeast fell 3.9 percent to $271,000 on a 1.9% sales increase. The Midwest posted a 1.1 percent decline in the median sales price to $176,000 but a 0.7 percent sales increase. In the South, the median sales price dropped 2.6 percent and sales slipped 0.8 percent.

Meanwhile, home shoppers also have more homes to choose from. The NAR says the decline in the sales rate has contributed to an increasing number of unsold existing homes, which totaled 3.92 million units in August. That's the largest supply since April 1993, according to the NAR.

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