Home prices in the U.S. continue to decline as the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller index released today showed that home prices fell new record amounts in January when compared to a year prior.
The S & P’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index measures sale prices of existing single-family homes nationally and tracks 10-city and 20-city composite home price measurements. The January house prices report showed that the 20-city composite index fell a record annual amount of 19.0 percent in January while the 10-city composite index also fell a new record 19.4 percent compared to last year.
The areas hardest hit on an annual basis were Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco with annual declines of 35.0 percent, 32.5 percent and 32.4 percent, respectively. On an annual basis, none of the 20 metropolitan areas measured have shown house price increases with Dallas being the area with the lowest annual decline at 4.9 percent.
On a monthly basis from December to January, Phoenix registered the largest house price decline with a fall of 5.5 percent while Charlotte and New York registered the smallest declines for the month with each falling 1.2 percent.
David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S & P, commented in the report, “Home prices, which peaked in mid-2006, continued their decline in 2009,” and that “There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data. Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path, with all of the 20 metro areas reporting annual declines, and nine of the MSA’s falling more than 20% in the last year. Indeed, the two composites are very close to that rate and have been reporting consecutive annual record declines since October 2007. The monthly data follows a similar trend, with the 10-City and 20-City Composite showing thirty consecutive months of negative returns.”
US Dollar mixed in forex trading. NZD falls sharply.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading against the major currencies today on the last day of the first quarter.
The euro has gained versus the dollar as the EUR/USD has edged up from today’s 1.3257 opening exchange rate at 00:00 GMT to trading at approximately 1.3267 near the end of the US trading session at 4:28pm EST according to currency data by Oanda.
The British pound has advanced slightly today versus the American currency from 1.4314 to trading at 1.4336 dollars per pound. The dollar has advanced gained against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has gained from its 98.32 opening to trading at 98.87.
The dollar has also gained against the Canadian dollar after opening at 1.2570 earlier today to trading at 1.2626. Meanwhile, the USD has declined against the Swiss franc from 1.1451 to trading at 1.1387.
The Australian dollar has gained ground verses the USD as the AUD/USD trades at 0.6907 after opening today at 0.6884.
The New Zealand kiwi dollar came crashing down versus the USD late in the day because New Zealand Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard released a statement that expressed his “concern over the recent strength of long-term wholesale interest rates.”
Bollard said, “As we said in our 12 March Monetary Policy Statement, the economic recovery is expected to be very gradual. Furthermore, the risks around the outlook continue to be weighted to the downside. In these circumstances we believe the rise in longer-term interest rates is unwarranted and inconsistent with the monetary policy outlook. As indicated in our March Statement, we are projecting interest rates to remain at relatively low levels for an extended period.”
The NZD dropped approximately 100 pips in less than an hour and now the NZD/USD trades around the 0.5603 level after opening the day at 0.5686.
NZD/USD Chart – The New Zealand kiwi spiking lower late in the day versus the USD in forex trading after Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard reiterated his view that interest rates in New Zealand would stay low for some time.
