.jpg)
The well-regarded S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices continue to indicate the start of a rebound from the recent bottom in home prices in many parts of the United States. The seasonally-adjusted version of the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite of 20 Home Price Index, which is a value-weighted average of 20 metro area indices, indicates that the average home price fell 32% from its peak in May 2006 to its trough in May of this year, but has subsequently increased by 2% as of July. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index for Boston indicates that the metro area has fared much better, falling by 18.3% from the local peak in January 2006 to the local trough in April of this year, before rebounding by 3% as of July. In contrast, San Francisco was hit much harder than Boston, with the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index for San Francisco plummeting by 45.4% from its peak in February 2006 to its trough in April of this year. Since then, the Index for San Francisco has climbed by 6.7%.
With indications that home prices are stabilizing in many metro areas and even starting to appreciate modestly, it’s a fortuitous coincidence that the popular, Emmy Award-winning TV series, This Old House, is starting its 30th anniversary season in October. The first episode of This Old House was broadcast locally on WGBH Boston in 1979, featuring the renovation of a Victorian house in the historic Dorchester section of Boston. The following year, This Old House went national on PBS. Bob Vila was the original host from 1979 through 1988, followed by Steve Thomas during 1989-2002, before the current host, Kevin O’Connor, took over. Throughout the show’s 30 years of home renovation projects, master carpenter, Norm Abram, has been a familiar presence providing expert advice.
This season, This Old House will start with a two-story, 330 square foot addition to a 1915 Dutch Colonial Revival in Newton Centre (shown above), illustrating challenges and trade-offs that many homeowners face in the present economic environment. In January, a foreclosed 1870 Second Empire residential structure in need of extensive renovation will be tackled in Roxbury, alongside nonprofit Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation. While not as wickedly funny as BravoTV’s Flipping Out, a Southern California version of serial home renovation projects, PBS’s This Old House continues to engage its audience with great advice and inspiration, and the preponderance of Boston-area projects can’t be beat.
Comments