According to the Altos Research Real National Estate Report released yesterday, in September Altos saw home prices drop in 21 out of the 26 markets they study. Additionally, the report showed that in a 10-city composite comparing price, they saw a 1.4 percent decline in asking prices in September, and a drop of 2.9 percent for the past three months. Las Vegas had the dubious honor of leading the way with the highest drop in asking price at 3.5 percent in September and 8.1 percent over the last three-month period. According to Altos, this is the sixth consecutive month that Las Vegas has had the fastest rate of declining prices among the markets they study.

The exceptions to this decline were found in Denver and San Diego which has a listing price increase of 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, in September.

While the continued decrease in housing price over most of the nation may signal bad news for the months ahead, as the Fall and Winter is typically slower in terms of housing than the Summer months,the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said yesterday that many potential homeowners are taking advantage of the more affordable prices they are seeing in the market. The NAR reported that its most recent Pending Home Sales Index, which is a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in August, jumped 7.4 percent to 93.4 from July’s level of 87.0, and is 8.8 percent higher than August 2007. Additionally, the index is at its highest level since June 2007.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said, “What we’re seeing is the momentum of people taking advantage of low home prices, with pending home sales up strongly in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island, and the Washington, D.C., region,” he said(2). “It’s unclear how much contract activity may be impacted by the credit disruptions on Wall Street, but we’re hopeful most of the increase will translate into closed existing-home sales.”

Altos’ figures, which found that inventory levels continued to decline in 21 out of 26 markets in September, seem to reflect the trend that the NAR is noticing. According to Altos the largest decreases in inventory were in Austin and Detroit, with drops of 6.3 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. Additional markets with more than a four percent decline included Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, and Houston.

Credits: DSNews

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