Government numbers better than private report on housing - Washington Business Journal:

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The FHFA report says single-familuy housing prices in the District in December weredown 3.93 percent from a year earlier, with declined in Virginia and Maryland at 10.08 percent and 11.83 respectively. Numbers quoted from the FHFA reporg are fromits “purchases only” index, meaning appraisals for refinancin are excluded. By that "all transactions” measure, pricees are down 6.02 percent in the District. The FHFA’x all-transactions index for metropolitan areas says prices in the Washingtoh metropolitan area aredown 12.15 percent in the past year, which is worsw than the national decline of 8.
2 “Price declines continued in the fourth quarter althoughh not as rapidly as some had said FHFA director James Lockharf in a statement. “We are hopeful the housing initiativees announced last week by Presidengt Obama will begin toprovidr much-needed stability to the housing markets.” A separate private-secto report that captures more expensive homes and includee condominiums shows steeper declines that the government S&P/Case-Shiller housing prices in the region were down 19.2 percent in Decembe from a year ago. The report, which measuresx housing prices only inthe nation’sw 20 largest metropolitan areas, says the averagd year-over-year decline was 18.
5 percent.