So I'm Super Dorky

I am seriously into financial data.
You have seen that the Case Shiller index recently published the October index results.

The Case Shiller Index is a Wall Street invention to try to track home prices. An index is kind of an artificial scorekeeping method to track things that are a little bit difficult to track. You may all know about the inflation index -- when the cost of a few goods that everyone buys goes up (milk, gas, etc.) the cost of living goes up a few points. Now, no one is taking any "points" out of your wallet for a gallon of milk, but you get the idea. They have made a similar points system for house prices -- the Case Shiller index.

To my delight, Case Shiller tracks not only national data, but metro-area data, including Minneapolis. So after shoveling out again today, I settled in with some Minneapolis area Case Shiller data. Whoo-hoo!

What I was wondering about was kind of twofold-- first off, when was the high point, and how far have we fallen from there?

Well, the high point was in mid-2006.
Prices have fallen now to about the same level as they were in early 2005.


Really, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. We've lost a few years of growth -- but the prices at the peak were SO inflated.