The graphic accompanying the release of the October 2008 S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices looks like a country in free fall -- home prices down some 20 percent from this time last year, sweet fancy Moses. Of course, locals will take cozy comfort in this paragraph from the morning news release:
Dallas and Charlotte faired the best in October in terms of relative year-over-year returns. Still in negative territory, their declines remained in low single digits of -3.0% and -4.4%, respectively. It should be noted, however, that both of these values are worse than those reported in the September data.For tons of fun, though, peek at the raw data for Dallas (and the other big cities surveyed), which dates back to January 2000. Besides, price ain't an issue in Dallas -- it's just the inventory. So they say. --Robert Wilonsky