NY Sun - "Futures Signal Housing Losses" (9-11-06)

"This impending and frightening development is based on a recently launched indicator of the direction of American home prices, which is currently flashing signals that housing prices nationally could finally bite the bullet and begin to actually go down as early as November and fall 6% by May."

"As noted by Standard & Poor's, the indicator — a futures contract traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange — is based on the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite Home Price Index, a weighted index of 10 major metropolitan indexes around the country. Embracing such areas as New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., the futures contract, based on recent prices, shows that traders are pricing in a 2.3% decline in nationwide home prices in November and an additional 1.3% dip by February before reaching the expected 6.3% decrease in May."