Nationwide housing markets saw prices drop, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report. S&P’s 20-city composite and 10-city composite show declines of 1.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. Nineteen of the 20 cities
covered by the indices also saw home prices decrease over the month. Phoenix was the exception. Existing home sales rose nationwide in November, but were still at a low annual rate of about 4 million. Single-family housing starts also rose, but remained close to record lows and were still down about 1.5 percent compared to October 2010. In the New York metropolitan area (the data has been criticized by Manhattan market experts for not including condominiums and co-ops), the index hit 168.12 in October, down 1.2 percent from September, and 2 percent from October 2010. — Lauren Elkies