S&P Set to Launch Metro Area Home Price Indices

[Emillereid]

NEW YORK, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading
index provider, announced today that it is joining with MacroMarkets and
Fiserv to publish the S&P/Case-Shiller Metro Area Home Price Indices. The
indices, set to launch during second quarter of 2006, are designed to be
reliable, authoritative and readily available measures of residential housing
prices in the United States.
Initially, ten individual metropolitan area indices and a weighted
composite index of home prices will be published as part of this strategic
partnership. CME, the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange,
will list futures and options contracts on the indices. The ten cities include
Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York Commuter
Index, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington D.C. CME will also list a
composite index of the ten cities for trading.
The foundation of these new, tradable indices are the Fiserv
Case-Shiller(R) Indexes ("CSIs(TM)"), produced commercially by Case Shiller
Weiss, Inc since 1991. Fiserv acquired Case Shiller Weiss in 2002 to form
Fiserv CSW, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiserv, Inc. The CSIs are widely
recognized as the most authoritative home price indices for tracking home
price trends, and are used by some of the country's largest financial
institutions for mortgage analytics and real estate market surveillance.
"For the vast majority of Americans, their home is their largest and most
valuable asset, and in a period of rising housing prices and increased
concerns about a possible housing bubble, reliable information on their
biggest asset is extremely important," says David Blitzer, Managing Director
and Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's. "Standard & Poor's
is excited to be working with both MacroMarkets and Fiserv on this
initiative."

...more... http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-22-2006/0004325058&EDATE=

What is this really about?? What exactly will be traded??

[Bozita]

1. Now we can watch the real estate bubble pop, one urban area after ...

... another.

America couldn't take one big pop. Get ready for several small pops spread over time.