Housing Prices Yet to Stop Dropping

By no surprise, U.S. housing prices continued on a downward slide in February. In a report released Tuesday, Integrated Asset Services, LLC, a provider of default management and residential collateral valuations, reports a 3% month-over-month drop in home prices during the month. U.S. house prices have now fallen 14.4% on a year-over-year basis and a whopping 17.9% since the height of the real estate bubble in 2006, according to IAS360 data. Since the economic collapse began in September 2008, the index shows a drop of 10.9%. “We have seen no indication of a positive turn in the housing markets we track, if anything the rate of decline in some areas has increased,” says Dave McCarthy, president and CEO of Integrated Asset Services. The IAS360 tracks home sales down to the neighborhood level, and then rolls up local totals in 360 counties, nine census divisions, four regions and the nation overall. Among the four U.S. Census region levels, the Northeast reported a 12.8% decline across the last 5 months and 4.6% drop in February. Similarly, the South dropped 12.8% and 3% for the same respective periods. The West, for its part, was down 10.2% and 2.5%. The Midwest, though down, was the only region that did not experience double-digit declines, dropping a lesser 8.9%. According to the index and its accompanying report, six of the ten largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the U.S. have experienced double-digit declines since the economy’s downturn. “No markets seem to be completely immune from the housing crisis,” McCarthy says. Boston, San Francisco, and Miami were the areas hardest hit, down 20.3%, 19.3%, and 18.1% respectively. The Boston area fell 10.3% in February alone. Within Boston’s metropolitan area, Essex, MA plunged at an astonishing rate of 22.8% in February, while Suffolk, MA followed closely, dropping 19.3%. Write to Kelly Curran at [email protected]. Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade