Case Shiller Index: For First Time Since May 2008, Portland Monthly Index Shows a Minor Increase.

May 2009 Case Shiller home price index data was released today.

For Portland:

• For the first time since May 2008, the monthly change was POSITIVE, albeit minor at .08%. (May 2008 had a .4% month to month increase)
  
• Despite the monthly increase, Portland's monthly change ranking dropped from 13th to 14th (best) as other metro areas did even better than Portland. (As recently as January Portland had ranked 6th best in the rate of monthly decline). I count 15 metro areas now showing monthly index INCREASES, an item not noted in the national CS press release.
• Portland's year to year decline continued to set a record reaching 16.27%.
• Portland's metro ranking for year to year change also dropped a notch to 9th (best).
• The Portland index is now down 21.2.% from it's record high of July 2007.

I have updated my monthly tables showing Portland and other metro data and rankings HERE.

The national release HERE notes:

"As of May 2009, average home prices across the United States are at similar levels to where they were in the middle of 2003, indicating that the three years of appreciation that occurred from 2003-2006 were all given back in the following three years."

My Note: The Portland index of 146.97 for May 2009 is close to the index of 144.36 in May of 2005, not 2003 (The May 2003 Portland index was 116.94, so May 2009 Portland index is 26% higher than in May of 2003, and 2% higher than in May of 2005).