Updated S&P/Case-Shiller Housing Numbers

The January 2008 S&P/Case-Shiller housing numbers were released yesterday for 20 US cities. Over the past few days, we've seen some better than expected housing numbers, indicating that things might be getting "less worse," so it's important to note that these numbers lag by three months. If things have begun to get better, these numbers will be the last to show it. Regardless, it's important to highlight which areas of the country have been hit the hardest.

As shown in the table at right, home prices in Las Vegas and Miami fell the most from January '07 to January '08. Las Vegas also fell the most from December '07 to January '08. Over that one-month period, Las Vegas fell sharply at 5.1%. Phoenix was the second worst performer month-over-month at -4.05%. Charlotte was the only city that saw year-over-year gains at +1.75%. Charlotte also fell the least month-over-month at -0.15%. The Composite 20-City index fell 10.71% year-over-year and 2.28% month-over-month.

Below we highlight historical monthly year-over-year changes for all 20 cities and the two Composite indices.