Data through December 2010, released this morning byStandard & Poor’s show that the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index declined by 3.9 percent quarter-over-quarter during the last three months of 2010.
The closely watched gauge is down 4.1 percent versus the fourth quarter of 2009, which is the lowest annual growth rate since prices plummeted at an annual rate of 8.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009.
“We ended 2010 with a weak report,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s. “Despite improvements in the overall economy, housing continues to drift lower and weaker.”
S&P warns in its report that both its 10-city and 20-city home price composites and the national index are moving closer to their 2009 troughs and a full-fledged double dip.
The national reading is within a percentage point of the low it set in the first quarter of 2009, Blitzer said.
The 10-city and 20-city composite measurements in S&P’s study are now only 3.9 percent and 2.3 percent above their April 2009 troughs, respectively. Back in July of
