by Calculated Risk on 9/30/2008 09:00:00 AM

Housing is the key. And house prices are still falling sharply ...

S&P/Case-Shiller released their monthly Home Price Indices for July this morning. This includes prices for 20 individual cities, and two composite indices (10 cities and 20 cities). Note: This is not the quarterly national house price index.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The first graph shows the nominal Composite 10 and Composite 20 indices (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000).

The Composite 10 index was off 12.3% annual rate in July (from June), and is off 21.1% from the peak.

The Composite 20 index was off 10.1% annual rate in July (from June), and is off 19.5% from the peak.

Prices are still falling, and will probably continue to fall for some time.

The second graph shows the Year over year change in both indices.

The Composite 10 is off 17.5% over the last year.

The Composite 20 is off 16.3% over the last year.

More on prices later ... including selected cities.