OHFEO index is -.21% from last quarter, the first quarterly decline since Q2 1996. Since it measures the change in same-house sales and refinances, why didn’t it start declining last year, or at least show a bigger decline? One explanation could be the effect of refinancing, where appraisals come in higher than for purchases. Maybe bugs or sdrealtor have an explanation.
Housing prices have been going down since last summer or before, and none of the quantifiers shows it (median, OHFEO, Case-Shiller).
