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The reading, provided by Standard & Poor’s this morning, was actually in line with expectations to a little better, with the 10-city composite index of prices without seasonal adjustment falling 0.2%, just as expected, and the seasonally-adjusted numbers down 0.3%, more than expected, which should be a good sign.



The 20-city Shiller composite, however, came in less than expected at 145.90 versus economists’ expectations for 146.28. Bloomberg’s Timothy Homan notes it was the seventh consecutive monthly decline for the 20-city index, a “sign of stabilization,” as he puts it.

Nevertheless, taking their cue from the broader market decline, home builder shares are sharply lower, with Pulte Homes (PHM) off 34 cents, or 3%, at $11.04, Toll Brothers (TOL) down 25 cents, or 1.3%, at $19.14, DR Horton (DHI) off 31 cents, or 2.4%, at $12.61, KB Home (KBH) down 45 cents, or almost 3%, at $16.35.

The latest Case Shiller data for their National Home Price Index is out. It shows the “the pace of deterioration has stabilized for now.”

For Q4 2009, US Home prices dropped 2.5%. vs Q4 ‘08. For all of 2009, quarterly price drops were:

Q1 = 19.0%
Q2 = 14.7%
Q3 = 8.7%
Q4 = 2.5%

For the month of December, the 20 city index fell 3.1% over November 2009. In December, 15 of the 20 metro areas showed a decline in December over November, with Chicago posting the sharpest decline, down 1.6%. Las Vegas finally posted its first positive print in more than three years, with +0.2%.

There is a conference call with Professor Shiller at 10:00am EST; info on the call, and Ginormous charts follow the jump . . .

Conference call info:

Live Call-In: US/Canada Toll Free: 1-866-803-2143
US/Canada/All Others Toll: 1-210-795-1098
UK Toll Free: 0800-279-3953
UK Toll Number: 44-20-7108-6248
Conference ID#: 1938362; Passcode: SANDP

To Listen Live Via Audio Web Streaming AND to View the Slide Presentation:
Visit: www.mymeetings.com; under participant, select join an event Conference NAME: PG1938362 and Passcode: SANDP. Then, in a separate browser, visit: http://www.mymeetings.com/nc/join.