Here’s a summary of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes release last week:

• Prices of U.S. single-family homes were down 16.3 percent in July compared to a year earlier
• The composite index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 0.9 percent in July from June
• The pace of home price declines since May has slowed (to about a third of the rate of the two previous three-month periods)
• Home prices in the DC area are just higher than where they were in August 2004

Of course, what could be bad news for sellers might be great news for buyers or investors (which, based on yesterday’s post, seems to be the case).

(Via Reuters and DC Home and Condo Prices)

Here’s a round-up of what real estate bloggers have to say about the House of Representatives rejecting the $700 billion bailout and the subsequent stock market plunge:

• “The Bailout plan has been rejected and it’s no surprise that the stock market has plummeted on the news. So why am I still so busy? I can’t answer that except by updating my current transaction activity.” (True Gotham: Making Sense  of Manhattan Real Estate)
• “Confidence among homebuilders has been a remarkably accurate guide to stock market movements one year later. So how are builders feeling today? According to a report from the AP last week, not well at all.”(DC Home and Condo Prices)
• “So what happens if there is no consensus on a plan to unfreeze the credit markets? For starters, a frozen real estate market.” (The Housing Chronicles Blog)