home values news stories on Newser

Home Prices Up .7%, 1st Rise in 8 Months

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 10:37:48 CDT

Home prices in major US cities have risen for the first time in eight months, boosted by an annual flurry of spring buyers. Prices rose in 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index, according to the April report released today. Washington, DC, saw the...

Housing Market Headed for Double Dip

Kevin Spak — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:52:47 CST

The housing market is cratering again, dousing the optimism that pervaded earlier this year. Prices fell for the third straight month in October, according to the S&P/Case Shiller index released yesterday, and economists expect them to keep dropping through early spring, wiping out any progress made since the market’s low...

Your House Isn't Going to Appreciate Like Mad

Kate Schwartz — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:24:00 CDT

In the good old days, a house was generally synonymous with "cash cow," a rapidly appreciating investment that all but guaranteed a comfortable retirement and paid for college tuition and vacations along the way. Those days of quick appreciation are gone, say economists, and have been replaced by a new...

Plunging Property Taxes Bleed Government Coffers

Harry Kimball — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:17:00 CDT

From New York and Los Angeles to devastated Rust Belt towns, falling home prices are leaving local governments in a pinch, the New York Times reports. Desperate for extra cash, homeowners are petitioning assessors in droves to lower their property taxes and match property values. “It’s worthy of a Dickens...

US Household Wealth Falls Record $5.1T

Nick McMaster — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:19:27 CDT

The wealth of US households fell at a record pace in the last quarter of 2008, as drops in home values and stock prices accelerated, Bloomberg reports. Net worth for households and non-profits fell $5.1 trillion to $51.5 trillion, nearly twice the decline between the second and third...

How One Woman's Home, and Dream, Foreclosed

Laurel Jorgensen — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:42:00 CDT

When a California woman bought a home 3 years ago, she had little idea that her mortgage would help drag down the nation's economy—and the world's, the Sacramento Bee reports. Erin O'Hagan and two family members pooled incomes to buy a $475,000 Sacramento home, and planned to refinance...

American Consumers Stop Spending: 'They All Feel Poor'

Jim O'Neill — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:34:55 CDT

Consumers, hit by a tsunami of economic bad news, have dramatically cut back spending in recent weeks, on everything from clothes to cars to airline travel to dining out, reports the New York Times. The slowdown all but guarantees a drop in consumer spending for the third quarter, the first...

Home Prices Fall Again; Rate of Decline Sets Record

Clay Dillow — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:01:07 CDT

Home prices continued to nosedive in May, a signal that the housing crisis may be worsening and a red flag for the credit markets and Wall Street, reports the New York Times. Every region covered by the S&P/Case-Schiller home-price index showed a drop compared to May 2007, with the rate...

US Lost 62K Jobs in June

Jim O'Neill — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:23:00 CDT

US employers, battered by rising fuel prices and a stuttering economy, continued to cut payrolls in June, eliminating some 62,000 jobs. It was the sixth straight monthly drop, reports the Wall Street Journal , and nearly 13% more than economists expected. Payrolls have fallen 438,000 so far this year,...