Good news? Home prices still falling, but not by as much
It’s amazing what qualifies for good news in today’s housing market. For instance, the Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday said that national housing prices continued to fall in the first quarter of this year. But they didn’t fall by as much as they’d dipped during the last quarter of 2008.
And, yes, this was heralded as good news.
I suppose it is, in a way. As this story in the Milwaukee Business Journal says, as housing prices begin to fall by smaller and smaller increments, it may mean that the residential real estate market is finally stabilizing. This would be good news for both buyers and sellers: It’d let everyone know the right price to set for homes, the prices that would guarantee home sales after a reasonable number of days on the market.
According to the government agency, nationwide home prices fell 0.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of this year. This is an improvement. Housing prices in the fourth quarter of 2008 had fallen 3.3 percent, according to the agency, from those in the third quarter of that year.
Again, I feel like I’m stretching the definition of “good news” here. But this smaller housing-price drop really does represent hope that the housing market is finally beginning to steady itself. Of course, we can all really celebrate when housing prices show an actual quarter-over-quarter increase.
Hopefully, that day is coming soon.
