USA Today
NEW YORK (AP) — Home prices fell at the sharpest rate ever in the first quarter compared to 2008, but the pace of month-to-month declines continues to slow, a closely watched housing index showed Tuesday.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price index reported home prices were down 19.1% in the first quarter, the most in its 21-year history.
Home prices have fallen 32.2% since peaking in the second quarter of 2006 and are at levels not seen since the end of 2002.
The 20-city index fell 18.7% in March from the year before and the 10-city index lost 18.6%. Those declines were a bit better than February’s and marked the second straight month the indexes didn’t post record drops.
Still, there are no signs home prices have hit bottom.
“We see no evidence that a recovery in home prices has begun,” said, David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee.
All 20 cities showed annual price declines, with nine setting annual records. Fifteen cities posted double-digit drops and three cities —Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco— recorded declines of more than 30%.
Minneapolis posted a 6.1% decline from February to March, and the biggest monthly drop on record for all of the metro area.
Charlotte and Denver home prices had the best performance in March over February, both edging up less than 1%. Home prices in Dallas were flat in March.
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