Single-family home prices fell 18.9% in January

The median sales price of single-family homes tumbled 3.5% in January, from December, and 18.9% from a year ago, according to Integrated Asset Services LLC in Denver. The January decline marks the largest monthly drop since prices peaked in November 2006, the report said. January’s drop alone lowers the value of the country’s housing stock by more than $610 billion, and brings the total loss in home values since the start of the economic meltdown last September to $2.4 trillion, the report said. The National Home Price Index is now down 24.7% from the housing sector’s peak in late 2006. The markets that saw the biggest increase in prices during the housing bubble — California and Florida — are the ones being slammed the hardest now, the report said. The counties taking the biggest hit are San Joaquin, Calif., where prices have fallen 59.9% since November 2006; Pasco, Fla. (57.3%); Lee, Fla. (56.7%); Monterey, Calif. (55.4%); and Charlotte, Fla. (52.4%). On a regional basis, home prices in Midwest saw the biggest monthly decline, slipping 4.5% from December, and down 14.6% from a year ago. The Northeast dipped 3.3% from December and 13.6% from a year earlier. The South declined 3.4% from December and 16.4% from a year ago, while the West fell 3.5% from December and 23.4% from a year earlier.