The Case Shiller report came out a few days ago, looking at data from March 2011. The news wasn't great, and the financial markets took notice. Though we say there is no national real estate market and that all real estate is local, some national indices can be informative. According to the report, the U.S. National Home Price Index declined by 4.2% in teh first quarter of 2011 after having fallen 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Nationally, home prices are reaching the values we saw in 2002. Some had predicted a "double dip", which we are now seeing. Home prices were propped by by last year's home buyer tax credit. The effects of the home buyer tax credit's expiration, along with a even more foreclosures due to interest rates resetting, has indeed pulled value lower. Washington D.C. and Seattle are the bright lights , with Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas values falling below their 2000 levels.
When we get specific to Portland, we never saw much of a bump from the home buyer tax credit; values and real estate activity just didn't fall as far as they might have without the stimulus. From February to March 2011 Portland's index has fallen 0.7% compared to the National 4.2% fall. The nations one year change was -5.1% as compared to Portland's -7.6%. Ew.
See the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices here
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