Charlotte Home Mortgage News

Charlotte is one of six cities where home prices have dropped to their lowest levels since 2006 and 2007 when values across the country began to fall, according to a national home price index.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices says the average home prices in Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Portland, Seattle and Tampa “have fallen beyond the recent lows seen in most other markets in the spring of 2009.”

The index of home prices shows Charlotte saw a 4.2 percent decline in values for the year ended Oct. 31. Average home prices for a composite of the top 20 metro areas declined 0.8 percent for the year.

The Charlotte market saw prices drop 1.1 percent in October from September and a fall of 1 percent in September from August.

“The double-dip is almost here, as six cities set new lows for the period since the 2006 peaks,” says David Blitzer, who oversees the index at Standard & Poor’s. “There is no good news in October’s report. Home prices across the country continue to fall.”

Blitzer says, on a year-over-year basis, sales are down more than 25 percent and the months’ supply of unsold homes is about 50% above where it was during this time last year.

“The trends we have seen over the past few months have not changed,” he says. “The tax incentives are over and the national economy remained lackluster in October, the month covered by these data. Existing homes sales and housing starts have been reported for both October and November, and neither is giving any sense of optimism.”

Housing starts are still hovering near 30-year lows, he adds.