The real estate bust in all its many colors

The headline number in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released this morning was that U.S. home prices dropped 4.4% in the 12 months ending in August. But it’s in the metropolitan-area details that the Case-Shiller data gets really interesting. So with the help of Time.com graphics whiz Feilding Cage, I charted them:

Pretty cool, huh? What’s fascinating is how the different metro areas segregate themselves into pretty clearly delineated categories.

There are the bursting-bubble metros, which on the chart start with L.A. and end with New York. Within that group there are some pretty interesting differences: L.A. and Miami peaked higher and later than the rest; Phoenix was just moseying along well outside the bubble zone until mid-2004, after which prices almost doubled in just two years; San Francisco and New York saw steadier (and possibly less bubblicious) gains than the rest.

Then you’ve got Seattle and Portland, which have seen substantial if not staggering price gains and are still living in their own happy, Northwestern alternative reality in which the real estate bust is just something you read about in your favorite newsweekly.

Then there are the three mini-bubble metros: Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis.

Finally, there are the metros, all in the South and Midwest, that never really participated in the post-2000 house-price boom. Most are doing okay, but Detroit and Cleveland–for reasons that have more to do with problems in the manufacturing sector than with problems in the real estate business–are not.

Update: A commenter over at Barry Ritholtz’s place wonders if maybe the chart should be viewed through 3D glasses. I just tried, and it did seem to make some of the lines jump out of the page. Mainly, though, it just made my eyes hurt.

Update 2: It turns out that one Tim Iacono is the true pioneer of the multicolored Case-Shiller chart. (Actually, Excel puts it in all those pretty colors automatically, but he was the first I know of to post the result online.)

The Creepy Dudes of Wall Street: Are Finance Guys Losing Their Mojo on the Dating Scene, Too?

It’s tough to tell when an internet phenomenon reaches actual meme status. But, in the case of the “creepy finance guy,” I think we can finally call it.

This week saw yet another jaw-dropping tale of Wall Street prattishness, this time in the form of a post-date survey. Yep, a finance dude went on a date with a lady. And then he asked her for constructive feedback.

Clay

I cannot reconcile a chart like that with the phrase “bust”. It seems that prices have pulled back somewhat, but we should understand that the prices were increasing at a dramatically unsustainable rate.

Has real-estate busted simply because the prices are no longer appreciating at an unsustainable clip?

The average price for a home in most of these cities are still nearly as high as they have ever been.

Maybe I am missing something but have we been enjoying such smooth economy for so long that there mere absense of of incredible appreciation counts as a “bust”?
Justin Fox

It all depends on when you bought your house, but I would think that in those metro areas that were experiencing double-digit annual gains, a 5% to 10% decline sure feels like a bust.

Still, in the UK and the Nordic countries in the early 1990s, prices went down something like 30% to 50%. So you’re right that we haven’t seen anything like that yet.
Peter Varhol

And if you took on a mortgage you couldn’t afford, with the expectation that rapidly rising values would bail you out, it was a real bust. And, of course, various part of the mortgage and financial community essentially made this same bet, so we have the so-called subprime mess (which for various reasons goes beyond subprime).
http://www.economicbubblesaregood.com Yadgyu

There is no subprime mess. Housing is still too high for many people to afford. There are more hosues on the market, but people are still not making enough money to come and buy them for cheap. Once the economy picks, if the economy picks up, housing will become a good investment once again.
Atlanta renter

I’d like to see this for the time frame after all the credit and loans were being tightended (Aug/Sep 07).
Justin Fox

The chart is through August. The Case-Shiller September numbers won’t be out for another month.
realitor

If you add Sacramento region (California central valley)and San Bernardino/Riverside (California Inland Empire) you will get a better picture of what is happening to real estate in Ca.
Justin Fox

The markets above are the only ones for which S&P/Case-Shiller publish data. And all the other data sources (NAR and OFHEO, mainly) suffer from limitations that make them less-than-strictly comparable to those of Case-Shiller.
swami

makes my head ache just to try and look at the graphs and colors… someone fix it… please..or just give us the tables we will plot this thing ourselves
Justin Fox

You can download the Excel spreadsheets here
http://www.p9000.com patski

holy cow, LA real estate is only up 260% since 2000, OMG it’s the end of the world….
Fred Sambo

A graph dating all the way back to 1987 would be sweet!
oyunlar

I cannot reconcile a chart like that with the phrase “bust”. It seems that prices have pulled back somewhat, but we should understand that the prices were increasing at a dramatically unsustainable rate.

Has real-estate busted simply because the prices are no longer appreciating at an unsustainable clip? ameliyat oyunları

The average price for a home in most of these cities are still nearly as high as they have ever been. 2 kişilik oyunlar

Maybe I am missing something but have we been enjoying such smooth economy for so long that there mere absense of of incredible appreciation counts as a “bust”? oda oyunları

kız oyunları
http://golfcoursehomesaz.com/arizona/recent-phoenix-real-estate-activity/ Recent Phoenix Real Estate Activity

[...] The real estate bust in all its many colors – The Curious … – Videos The Curious Capitalist Commentary on the economy, the markets, and business The Curious Capitalist Feed Daily E-mail Updates « Previous Stan finally goes. The headline number in the S Phoenix was just moseying along well outside the bubble zone until mid-2004, after which prices almost doubled in just two years; San Francisco and New York saw steadier (and possibly less bubblicious) gains than the rest. Then you've got Seattle and Portland, which have seen substantial if not staggering price gains and are still living in their own happy, Northwestern alternative reality in which the real estate bust is just something you read about in your favorite newsweekly. [...]
http://cash4homes.com.au/what-to-do-when-you-have-mortgage-repayment-problems/ What To Do When You Have Mortgage Repayment Problems | Cash 4 Homes

[...] The real estate bust in all its many colors – The C… – Videos The Curious Capitalist Commentary on the economy, the markets, and business The Curious Capitalist Feed Daily E-mail Updates « Previous Stan finally goes. Pretty cool, huh? What's fascinating is how the different metro areas segregate themselves into pretty clearly delineated categories. There are the bursting-bubble metros, which on the chart start with L. [...]