Home prices fell to post-recession lows in the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller national indices.  Home values in nine metro areas also reached record lows, the report said.

S&P said its 10-city composite index experienced an annual home price decline of 3.6% in February, while the 20-city composite index declined 3.5% from a year earlier.

This is a slight improvement from January when the indices declined 4.1% and 3.9%, respectively, year-over-year.

“While there might be pieces of good news in this report, such as some improvement in many annual rates of return, February 2012 data confirm that, broadly-speaking, home prices continued to decline in the early months of the year,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Indices.

“Nine MSAs — Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Las Vegas, New York, Portland, Seattle and Tampa — hit new post-crisis lows. Atlanta continued its downward spiral, posting its lowest annual rate of decline in the 20-year history of the index at -17.3%.”

The Atlanta metro area suffered the worst, experiencing a year-over-year home price decline of 17.3%.

Five metros did see positive annual returns, including Denver, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis and Phoenix.

Blitzer added, “Atlanta has now recorded five consecutive months of double-digit negative annual rates and seven consecutive monthly declines. On the other hand, Phoenix has posted two consecutive months of positive annual rates, with its latest being positive 3.3%, and five consecutive positive monthly returns.”

 

The author of this article is: Kerri Panchuk

 See the original post at: http://www.housingwire.com/news/home-prices-nine-metros-reach-new-lows-2

At GayRealEstate.com, we keep you updated with all the gay realtor, lesbian realtor, gay realty, gay real estate and general real estate news affecting the LGBT community coast to coast, and in your neighborhood.

         Click here for list of gay realtors, lesbian realtors and gay friendly realtors Nationwide.


If you have a real estate story that you’d like to share with us with the gay and lesbian real estate community, please contact us at: manager@gayrealestate.com