|
Home prices fall in half of US cities
[Iran Press TV] Home prices in half of the US have plunged in third quarter the current year as banks stepped up property repossessions.There was a fall in the mean price of a single-family home in 76 of 155 US metropolitan areas, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Thursday, Bloomberg reported. House prices in Florida, slumped 20 percent from last year, showing the largest decline overall. There was a 15 percent drop in prices in the cities of Palm Bay, Florida, and Tucson, Arizona. The mean price of US homes fell 0.2 percent to $177,900. The US housing market is struggling as lenders continue to seize a record number of properties. This under pressure financial sector is also being hindered by a 26-year high in unemployment figures. Banks repossessed more than 288,345 homes in the period covered by the Realtors report, up 22 percent from a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a data firm in Irvine, Caliphornia. The foreclosures caused by homes being seized boost the supply of available homes and, therefore, reduce prices as properties are then sold at a discounted price to force quick sales. "The bottom has proven to be quite elusive," said Stan Humphries, chief economist of data firm Zillow.com in Seattle. "There could be another five percent coming off the national market" as prices decline further, he said. There was some positive news for the US housing market though as the mean price of a single-family home in the New York metropolitan area climbed 2.8 percent in the third quarter. Edison and New Jersey showed 3.5 percent gains and prices in Boston rose 5.3 percent, according to the report. The largest increases in house prices were seen in Burlington and Vermont, where an 18-percent overall rise in home value was recorded. In a separate report today, the Realtors group also announced that US home sales have plummeted 25 percent to a 4.16 million seasonally adjusted annual pace in the third quarter, compared to the previous three months. The number of people owning homes in the US remains at a 10-year low of 66.9 percent in the third quarter this year, according to the US Census Bureau. Posted by: Fred 2010-11-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=309548 |