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Home prices fell in a record number of U.S. metropolitan areas in Q4 2007, the National Association of Realtors announced Thursday, in a statement.Prices fell in 77 of 150 metropolitan areas tracked, the most since the NAR start tracking values in 1979. Moreover, 16 metro areas recorded declines of 10% or higher.
U.S. median home price declines
Meanwhile, on a year-over-year basis, the U.S. median home price also declined 5.8% in Q4 2007 to $206,200 compared to $219,000 in Q4 2006. Even more telling, home prices have declined more than 10% since their July 2006 peak.
The metropolitan area with the biggest decrease was Lansing- East Lansing, Michigan, which recorded a 19% decline. Prices fell 18.5% in the Sacramento, California region and 17% in Riverside and San Bernardino, California, and in the Jackson, Mississippi, region, the NAR announced.
Home prices fell in every region. The regional totals: West, down 8.7% to $324,100; Northeast, down 4.8% to $261,700; South, down 8.7% to $171,700; and the Midwest, down 3.2% to $156,300.
Sobering Q4 stats
Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Thursday the NAR's Q4 2007 housing report offers more sobering statistics.
"It is another sobering report, no question. We recorded a nearly 6% decline in prices, Q4-to-Q4, which is very bad," Langan said. "Potential homeowners are obviously on the sidelines, which is rational because they believe prices will drop further. The market is also being hit by foreclosures, which is piling up inventory and further depressing prices."
Further, Langan said the housing sector is approaching an ominous statistic - - one economists and no-doubt homeowners, realtors and others concerned about the economy do want to cross.
"We're coming up on 18 months of declines in the U.S. median home price," Langan said. "The last time that occurred was 1932-1933 during the Great Depression, but don't haul me into court on that. But I know it was in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It's not a statistic we want to replicate."
Further, total state existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.96 million units in Q4 2007, down 8.5% from 5.42 million in Q3 2007, and are 20.9% below a 6.26 million-unit pace in Q4 2006, the NAR said.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-15-2008 @ 11:05AM
william lindblad said...
While the statistical decline in housing will probably surpass that of the 1930's, the similarity ends there. Current economics are quite different.
greed was a major player both than and now, but the money flow of the late 20's was into the stock market and that was the bubble that burst. Today, it was the housing market. In most areas prices increased 100 to 200% of value in a few years fed by inventive mortgage practice and a willing public. The amount of mortgage failure and sale available real estate is staggering and the end is not yet in sight. The "R" word looms on the horizon.