Housing Market in Several U.S. Cities Continues to Descend into 2012

1. The Standard & Poor/ Case-Shiller (The Case-Shiller index “measures prices for roughly half of all U.S. homes,” (Associated Press.) committee—headed by Chairman David M. Blitzer—conducted the survey through data revealed by the indexes.
2. This article did not disclose who sponsored this study.
3. There could be several benefits from this study, including but not limited to predicting future housing patterns in the U.S. economy; likely home mortgages rates and loans needed; and discovering which cities and regions have been—and may continue to be—hit the hardest in terms of the housing market. This study affects a plethora of people, including homeowners—both current and potential— real estate companies; construction companies; economists; and members of the government, especially those in city councils and those working on solutions to the rather depleted housing market.
4. Twenty cities throughout the United States were used in this study, obviously a sample of all American cities. The article, however, did not state how the cities were chosen for the study, nor did it reveal all twenty cities involved.
5. The results of the study were revealed in a somewhat clear manner; however, the article did not actually reveal the findings for all of the cities involved in the study, nor did it list all twenty cities included. The statement that “The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed prices dropped in October from September in 19 of the 20 cities tracked,” (Associated Press) does reveal the overall outcome of the study, which is quite unfortunate for the housing market. “Still, home prices have fallen roughly 32 percent nationwide since the housing bubble burst five years ago and are back to 2003 levels, according to the index,” (Associated Press).
   
   
6. There were no graphs used in this article to provide a clear illustration of the data.

Associated Press. “Survey: Home prices down in most major US cities.” FoxNews.com. Dec. 27, 2011. Retrieved from
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/27/survey-home-prices-down-in-most-major-us-cities/#ixzz1iqEPgHkr