Robert Shiller, economics professor at Yale University and co-creator of the S&P/Shiller home-price index, talks with Bloomberg’s Carol Massar about the US housing market. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index climbed 1% from the prior month, seasonally adjusted, after a 1.2% increase in July, the group said. From a year earlier, the gauge fell 11.3%, less than forecast. (The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices can be accessed here.)

Click here or on the image below to view the interview. (There is no longer embedding available for the Bloomberg videos on YouTube.)

Source: Bloomberg (via YouTube), October 27, 2009.

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The S&P/Case-Shiller 10-City Home Price Index increased by 1.3% in August following an increase of 1.7% in July, and up 1.4% in June.  Over the year, the index has fallen by 10.6%, less than the 12.8% 12 month decline observed in July.  The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index increased by 1.2% over the month after increasing by 1.6% in July, up 1.4% in June, and a 0.5% increase in May.  The index is down by 11.3% over the year compared to a 13.3% decline last year.  This is the 7th consecutive month the indices have improved.  19 of all 20 indices showed improvements in the annual decline, with Cleveland as the exception.

The Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 47.4(1985=100) in October after dropping to 53.4% in September from 54.1% in August.  The index was expected to increase with the consensus at 53.6%.  The Present Situation Index decreased

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The S&P/Case-Shiller 10-City Home Price Index increased by 1.7% in July following an increase of 1.4% in June, a 0.5% increase in May, and a 0.7% decrease in April.  Over the year, the index has fallen by 12.8%.  The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index increased by 1.6% over the month after increasing 1.4% in June, 0.5% increase in May, and a 0.6% decrease in April.  The index is down by 13.3% over the year.  All 20 metropolitan areas in the index showed improvement over the month, with only Seattle and Las Vegas continuing to show monthly declines, as the rate of annual decline in the indices have diminished since early 2009.  The index is back to fall 2003 levels since falling by 33.5% (10-City) and by 32.6% (20-City) since the indices peaked in the second quarter of 2006.

The Consumer Confidence Index dipped to 53.1 (1985=100) in

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I was happy and surprised to see that the nominal S&P/Case-Shiller seasonally adjusted Home Price Index rose by 0.75% in June for a composite of 20 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Inflation- and seasonally-adjusted S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index for San Diego (red) and 10 major metropolitan areas (black). Calculated as seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller index multiplied by the ratio of the July 2009 CPI to that for the indicated date.

Let me explain first why I was surprised. I am expecting the unemployment rate to rise further, and feared that this plus the existing inventory of unsold homes would continue to put downward pressure on home prices.

Let me explain second why I see the increase in house prices as a favorable development. The key problem facing the financial sector has been the loss in the market value of securities

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The S&P/Case-Shiller 10-City Home Price Index increased by 1.4% in June, following a 0.5% increase in May (revised from an originally reported 0.4% increase, a 0.7% decrease in April, and a 2.1% decline in March.  Over the year, the index has fallen by 15.1%.  The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index also had increased by 1.4% in June, following a 0.5% increase in May, and a 0.6% decrease in April.  The index is down by 15.4% over the year.  The indices now stand at early-2003 levels.  Over the past month, 18 of the 20 MSAs showed improvement in returns, the highest being in Cleveland, up 4.2%.  Las Vegas posted negative returns of -2.0% and Detroit of -0.8%.  Over the year, all metropolitan areas show negative returns.

The Consumer Confidence Index bounced back to 54.1% in August, from 47.4% in July, better than the expected 47.8% level.  The Present

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Housing Market Showing Signs of Stability? Puh-lease!

The mainstream press would have us to believe a real estate market rebound is imminent. They keep glomming onto any data that shows the slightest sign of stability.

For instance, Bloomberg jumped all over the July 1 report from the National Association of Realtors that showed pending sales for previously owned homes rose for the fourth consecutive month. Other outlets had a field day with the news out of the Mortgage Bankers Association that refinancings hit a three-month high in early July. And ditto for the news that foreclosures dropped 11% in the second quarter.

But these “signs of stabilization” are bogus. Or to beg, borrow and steal from value-investing legend, Whitney Tilson, they are the “mother of all head fakes.”

Fact is, these short-term improvements were fabricated. They materialized because of temporary factors like the $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit (set to expire November 30),

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Recently, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld and I took a collective pop at some lazy journalists and other media cheerleaders. Their crime? Whipping the investment community into false optimism through misleading headlines regarding earnings announcements.

They’re at it again.

This time, the flashy headline writers grabbed onto the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, which stated that existing home sales climbed for the third straight month, and at a faster pace than economists expected.

And they were out in force again when the Commerce Department said new U.S. home sales saw an 11% bounce in June. On an annualized basis, that equated to 384,000 homes - 9% higher than estimates.

Collectively, new and existing home sales hit the highest level in eight months in June.

Sweet! Hand me some champagne - let’s celebrate. Or maybe we should hang on a sec… there’s a problem with these headlines. Here’s what you need to know about

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The U.S. Housing Market: Three (More) Reasons Real Estate Isn’t Rebounding

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist

Editor’s Note: Yesterday we heard from Martin Denholm, the managing editor at Smart Profits, one of our affiliate publications which will be joining us over the next few weeks. We’ll be adding their experts to our esteemed panelists to give you the best investing ideas and advice out there. Today we follow Martin with outspoken favorite, Louis Basenese, who also gives us his take and concern for investors, on the housing market.

If ever an off-the-wall indicator existed to predict the fate of the U.S. housing market, I found it… You see, business is booming in one particular niche of the real estate industry - shrink-wrap.

That’s right. Contractors and developers are wrapping mothballed building projects in plastic, literally - from single-family homes to 25,000 square foot commercial properties.

The beneficiary? Privately-held Fast Wrap

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The Real Estate Market: Don’t Celebrate Housing’s Recent Uptick Yet

by Martin Denholm, Contributing Editor

Recently, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld and I took a collective pop at some lazy journalists and other media cheerleaders. Their crime? Whipping the investment community into false optimism through misleading headlines regarding earnings announcements.

They’re at it again.

This time, the flashy headline writers grabbed onto the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, which stated that existing home sales climbed for the third straight month, and at a faster pace than economists expected.

And they were out in force again when the Commerce Department said new U.S. home sales saw an 11% bounce in June. On an annualized basis, that equated to 384,000 homes - 9% higher than estimates.

Collectively, new and existing home sales hit the highest level in eight months in June.

Sweet! Hand me some champagne - let’s celebrate. Or maybe we should hang on

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Break out the tissues, folks… Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner can’t sell his house.

Frustrated at not being able to sell his $1.6 million New York mansion after three-and-a-half months on the market, Geithner has yanked down the “For Sale” sign. And that’s after he and his wife lowered the price to below what they paid for it in 2004. Having taken out a $1.25 million mortgage at the time, they’re now apparently renting the home at a loss.

Doesn’t Tim read the papers? He didn’t seriously expect to sell Fort Geithner in such a short time in a market like this, did he? It’s tough out there, mate. First, you have to persuade buyers that it’s worth shelling out $1 million-plus for a house. Then you have to convince them that it’s not made of cards - you know, like some of his economic theory.

But wait… haven’t we just seen some

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