Standard and Poor's has released their  Case-Shiller Home Price Indices for August.

Data through August 2008 released by Standard and Poor's for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of US home prices, shows continued broad based declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States.

What the press release doesn't go into is a very interesting phenomenon in markets Maui property owners would care about. In markets like Los Angeles, Seattle and Denver, the rate of price declines slowed in August. What do we mean. Well in Los Angeles for example the August monthly decline was 1.8%. Multiply that by 12 for an annual decline and you get 21.6%. A terrible number, but better than the last twelve month decline of 26.7%. In other words the rate of decline is slowing. A speck of good news anyway. Now to be fair, this sales data all came in advance of the October financial markets meltdown. For details, contact us.