Home prices plunge 18% in 4Q

Prices of existing single-family homes tumbled 18.2% on average in the fourth quarter of 2008, marking the biggest year-over-year price decline in the 21-year history of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. “The broad downturn in the residential real estate market continues,” David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s of New York, said in a statement Tuesday. “There are very few, if any, pockets of turnaround that one can see in the data.” Indeed, the firm’s 10-city and 20-city composite indexes also set records, with year-over-year declines of 19.2% and 18.5%, respectively. The metropolitan area posting the biggest price decrease was Phoenix, where prices fell 34%. This was followed by Las Vegas, where prices fell 33%, and San Francisco, where there was a dive of 31.2%. Other metro areas posting declines in excess of 10% were Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington. The metro areas showing the smallest price erosion were Denver and Dallas, where prices fell 4% and 4.3%, respectively. Home prices at the end of December were at their lowest levels since the third quarter of 2003, according to the data. Prices have plunged 26.7% on average from their peak in the second quarter of 2006.