Hello Chanel and thanks for your question.

Terrence is absolutely right regarding this and other housing data. Case-Shiller, in particular, is "backward looking" with respect to performance and is updated only once every 6 months or so. As a result, its performance numbers are good for only a "point in time" as we accountants often say.

Further C-S is not a localized measurement of housing prices, so there will be areas within the US that are marketedly more popular than others. Thus, while the nationalized and averaged results in C-S say one thing, the prices in your own area may vary vasty from the C-S report.

If you're hanging your hopes on C-S's figures coming to your neighborhood soon, you may need to wait for the market to crash again--which may be unlikely as home prices as well as demand have increased this summer. Unfortunately, all indexes of this nature are about what happened in the past, and do little to portend the future.

Good luck in your home purchase!

Sincerely,
Grace Morioka, SRES, e-Pro
Area Pro Realty

You're kidding, right? The Case Shiller Index is akin to the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the Standard and Poor 500 Average. Although the DOW and S&P500 are updated continuously where the Case Shiller is updated much less frequently.

You could even compare this with getting the average temperature of the US in the month of June could be 70 degrees. OK great. That's the average temperature. But we know darned well that it does not hold true with most places in the US. They are actually higher or lower. The average in Texas could be 90 degrees and in Michigan it could have an average of 50 degrees.

Do you really think that averages could work with the housing market? A 3 bedroom 2 bath rancher in the Philadelphia area could go for $230K. That same house could be $195K in the Pittsburgh area and $160K in upstate PA.

Not all stocks are priced according to the Dow or S&P500. Not all areas are consistent with the average temperatures and home prices surely are not consistent with Case Shiller.

Hope that helps,

Terrence Charest, e-Pro®
REALTOR®
Century 21 Associates
905 Easton Road
Willow Grove, PA 19090
Cell (Preferred): 877.614.1494
Office: 215.659.5250
Fax: 215.659.5550
http://www.HomesForFreedom.com
tcharest@HomesForFreedom.com
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