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US house prices continue dramatic fall | |
(about 6 hours later) | |
US single-family home prices fell for the seventh month in a row in January, new statistics show. | |
Seasonally adjusted prices fell in 12 of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller href="http://www.standardandpoors.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobheadername3=MDT-Type&blobcol=urldocumentfile&blobtable=SPComSecureDocument&blobheadervalue2=inline%3B+filename%3Ddownload.pdf&blobheadername2=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobheadername1=content-type&blobwhere=1245301368714&blobheadervalue3=abinary%3B+charset%3DUTF-8&blobnocache=true" >index. | |
In four cities, prices were at their lowest in 11 years, with the overall index down 0.2% in January from the previous month. | |
The average annual price fall across the 20 cities was 3.1%; only Washington DC saw a meaningful rise in prices. | |
House prices in the US capital city, which in general has fared better than the rest of the country during recent economic downturn, gained 3.6% over the year. | |
San Diego was flat at 0.1% above January's price a year ago. | |
S&P's David Blitzer said worse declines could lie ahead. | |
"The housing market recession is not yet over, and none of the statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery," he said. | |
"Keeping with the trends set in late 2010, January brings us weakening home prices with no real hope in sight for the near future. | |
Behind the declines, in part, is the continued impact of the implosion of the sub-prime lending market, including high house foreclosure rates. | |
But there is also a clear lack of confidence on the part of buyers - partly because they can see which way the wind is blowing and they are waiting to see if prices are going to fall again. And unemployment is still at 8.9%, far too high to convince people that better times are around the corner. | |
"At most, we have seen all statistics bounce along their troughs; at worst, the feared double-dip recession may be materializing." | |
In Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas, average house prices remain below 2000 levels. House prices in Phoenix, in the US state of Arizona, showed the most drastic decline with a 9.1% fall from the previous year. | |
The index tracks the prices of typical single-family homes in each of the metropolitan areas surveyed. | |
The declines come as other economic indicators show signs of recovery. | |
Consumer spending has been rising and manufacturing activity is growing at the fastest rate in seven years. |