Some Things Never Change

Two pieces of not-very-surprising news today:

First: Foreclosures soared last year, with the numbers in 2007 increasing over 2006 by 75%, according to RealtyTrac. The December-to-December increase itself was 97%.

And it doesn’t appear that the foreclosure numbers will be getting better any time soon. First American Core Logic is reporting that the risk of foreclosure has jumped 22% from last January.

Second: The S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index is out for November 2007, and it’s showing the largest year-over-year price decline on record.

Both the ten and twenty-city indices were down: 8.4% for the ten-city and 7.7% for the twenty. The 8.4 percent decline in the ten-city index is a new record low, smashing the previous record of 6.7%, set only last month.

Once again, home prices in Atlanta lost ground. The monthly drop increased from 1.2% seen last month to 1.8%. Year-to-year, prices declined 2%.

The largest drop was once again in Miami, which saw homes shed over fifteen percent in year-over-year value.