ASU index shows promising signs for Phoenix-area housing market - Denver Business Journal:

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The monthly ASU-Repeat Sales Index shows a record 37-percent drop in the indexd from March 2008 toMarch 2009. However, that’s stagnany from the same 37-percent fall noted in the Februarh 2008 to February2009 period. Even more promising, that Marcnh number is followed by preliminary estimates of alessert 35-percent drop for April 2008 to April 2009, and a 33-percent dip from May 2008 to May 2009. The ASU-RSo measures changes in average Phoenix-area home price from year to “If they hold up, the April and May figurex would be the first evidencre that the housing market has reached aturninhg point,” said Karl Guntermann, the Fred E.
Taylore Professor of Real Estate at theat ASU, who calculates the ASU-RSI with research associate Adam Nowak. “Thisa indicates the rate of declineis slowing, and even thoughn actual home prices continue to they’re falling by much smaller amounts than they typicallgy have during the past 18 months.” The index has now declinexd for 25 months in a row, the longest drop in Valley history. From March 2008 to March 2009, Glendalr experienced the worst fall of any local city at 40 Tempe saw the mildest decline in the index at 18 Preliminary estimates show themedian Phoenix-area home pricer at $115,000 in May. That would put pricez back at the same level asOctobee 1998.
The ASU-RSI is based on repeat sales, which compare the prices of a single house against itself at different pointsin time. The ASU-RSIj is produced through the Center for Real Estate Theoryt and Practice atthe W. P. Carey School of