A report by USA Today stated that record declines in home prices took place this October in 11 large metro areas. Miami, Tampa, Detroit, and San Diego led the list of cities whose home prices slid 6.1% in October as compared to October 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Schiller composite index. The data points to evidence that the present real estate market is one of the worst since the United States entered World War II.
Robert Schiller, a Yale University economics professor and co-developer of the index, said, “When was the last time we had a bigger drop than this? It looks like 1941.” He was speaking of the time before the Pearl Harbor bombing on December 7. “The U.S. wasn’t in the war yet, but it sure looked bad. Hitler was raging in Europe. … You didn’t want to be buying a house then.”
Today’s real estate recession is marked by almost a year’s supply of homes for sale, nationwide, with many properties being discounted by lenders, builders and speculators who have become owners via the foreclosure process. Professor Schiller forcasts prices to fall an additional 5% to 7% in 2008.