Metro home prices, sales continue to fall

By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For the third month in a row, housing prices and sales across metro Atlanta declined in September from the same month a year ago, according to data released Monday by the National Association of Realtors.

Sales fell 14.4 percent and prices dropped 11.2 percent in the metro area, the report said.

Nationally, sales fell 19.5 percent compared to September 2009, though they rose 10 percent from August. The median sale price nationally fell 1.9 percent from a year earlier, to $172,600.

Is this good news?

No. While the national sales gain from August generated headlines, year-over-year sales and prices are still falling. Metro Atlanta did better on the sales front but worse on pricing, with the median price of an existing single family home falling to $111,500, from $125,600 in September 2009. The September median price increased about $400 from August of this year.

What's next

Tuesday, Standard & Poor's releases its Case-Shiller Index for August. Case-Shiller and the National Association of Realtors track the existing single-family home prices but use different methodologies. The Realtors' results are based on monthly closings and produce a median price. Case-Shiller follows properties sold over time, rather than individual home sales, and measures value from a baseline in 2000.