Case-Shiller: Beware the Head Fake

There was some reason to take comfort about yesterday’s data from the Case-Shiller Index—the rate of price declines slowed for the third straight month nationally. But before you break out the champagne and check books, get a dose of what the Wall Street Journal had to say yesterday:

The bloodletting may not be over. Here’s why: If price declines accelerate for the mid-to-upper end of the housing market, then that could generate enough large declines in values—even among a small segment of the overall housing market—to push the index lower still.

Meanwhile, here in New York (where there’s plenty of “mid-to-upper” properties) housing prices ticked down another 1.6 percent in April for a total of 21 percent off the June 2008 high, as the chart above shows.