Home Prices Drop in Past 12-Months

New York, NY, September 25, 2007 – Home prices continue to fall across the country, according to data through July released today by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices.

The study shows that the rate of decline has become larger in each of the seven months through July.

“The decline in home prices clearly continued into the summer months,” says Robert J. Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC.

“The year-over-year decline reported for the 10-City Composite is the lowest since July 1991. The lowest annual decline in this Index, which dates back to January 1987, was -6.3%, which was reported in April 1991. The further deceleration in prices is still apparent across the majority of regions, with 16 of the 20 metro areas showing a drop in their annual growth rate from what was reported in June.”

While prices in five of the metro areas – Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Portland and Seattle – are still growing, all five have shown deceleration in their rates of growth during the past year. Both Atlanta and Dallas are getting closer to joining 15 other metro areas in registering a year-over-year decline in home prices.