by Calculated Risk on 8/25/2007 02:25:00 PM

ALSO: see this great interactive graphic from the NY Times: Home Prices Across the Nation, and a video with David Leonhardt.

From the NY Times: Drop Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes

The median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950.

In the video (at the graphic link above), Leonhardt explains that the "official" price hasn't declined - in nominal terms - since the federal agencies started keeping statistics, but prices have declined in real terms - and in nominal terms according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index.

Economists say the decline, which could be foreshadowed in a widely followed government price index to be released this week, will probably be modest — from 1 percent to 2 percent — but could continue in 2008 and 2009. ...

The reversal is particularly striking because many government officials and housing-industry executives had said that a nationwide decline would never happen, even though prices had fallen in some coastal areas as recently as the early 1990s.

There is much more in this article by Leonhardt and Vikas Bajaj. Check it out.

The OFHEO House Price Index will be released on Thursday, Aug 30th.