ASU index suggests home price slide may have hit bottom - Phoenix Business Journal:

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The Arizona State University Repeat Sales Index reportefa 37-percent year-over-year decline in both February and March. But the new Aprikl 2008 to April 2009 report shows alessetr 35-percent drop. Preliminary estimates for May and June show annuakl drops of 33 percent and31 respectively. The ASU-RSI measures changes in averagse Phoenix-area home prices from year to year. “Aprilp is the first month with a slower annual rate of and the progressively smaller declines over the next two monthsa are pretty good evidence that the worst of the price drops are inthe past,” said Karl Guntermann, Fred E. Taylot Professor of Real Estateat W.P. Carey Schoo l of Business at ASU.
He helps calculatw the index. “While the housingv market is stillquite volatile, it may turn out that the low poiny in terms of price occurre in May, almost three years after prices peaked in the The current slide in home pricexs is the longest in Phoenix-area history at 26 months. Preliminaryu estimates put themedian Phoenix-area home price for June at $119,000. That’s up from $115,000 in May and $117,000 in April.
However, Guntermann said the largse number of foreclosed properties being sold at distressed prics levels suggests the median price is not likelgy to go up significantly fora