GLOBE AND MAIL: Fresh signs of weakness emerged Tuesday in the long-suffering real estate sector, renewing worries that housing will act as a drag on the broader economic recovery.
Housing prices slid 1.3 per cent in October from September, according to the closely followed S&P/Case-Shiller index, surprising economists who had forecast a smaller decline. Compared with a year earlier, prices also fell back, a sign of how persistent the sector’s problems remain.
U.S. home prices are still above their recent lows, touched in the spring of 2009. But Tuesday’s data raised the disturbing prospect that the worst may not yet be over. In six of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the index, prices dropped to their lowest levels since the collapse of the housing boom… (more)
