• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 27, 2008

The downturn in the housing market is taking a big bite out of shelter titles, which are suffering vertigo-inducing drops in ad pages, with a few lucky exceptions. Of 16 titles surveyed, 12 saw ad pages fall between the first half of 2007 and the comparable period in 2008; of these, seven titles were hit with double-digit declines.

Only a few shelter titles bucked the trend in the first half of 2008. Hachette's Metropolitan Home is up 5%, while Elle Décor is up 4%. Conde Nast's Architectural Digest is up 4%, and Hearst's House Beautiful is up 14%. And that's where the good news ends; unfortunately it's outnumbered by bad news by 3-to-1.

Regional and rustic titles seem to be having a particularly rough time.

At Time Inc., Coastal Living is down 32%, Sunset is down 14%, Southern Living is down 4%, and Cottage Living is basically flat with a 0.4% decline. Home makeover title This Old House is down 13%. Meredith Corp.'s Traditional Home is down 15%, and Country Home dropped 12%. Hachette's Home has fallen an alarming 30%. Meredith's flagship Better Homes and Gardens, while not usually classified as a shelter title, is also feeling the heat, with ad pages down 13%. Hearst's Country Living is down 4%.

On the whole, titles targeting younger women seemed to fare a little better: Conde Nast's Domino slipped 2%, while indy Dwell is down 7%.