Latest Home Prices: Did Your City Take a Hit?

Tuesday turned out to be yet another bleak day for homeowners after the latest installment of S&P/Case-Shiller index, a key measure of U.S. housing prices, showed that home values continued to spiral downward.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities declined 18.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the fourth quarter of 2007 -- the fastest drop on record. Worse, eight of the metro areas logged negative returns exceeding 20%. The data put home prices across the country at similar levels to what they were in the third quarter of 2003.

The biggest losers continue to be cities in the Sunbelt -- Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada -- where foreclosures have been widespread for more than a year. Homes prices in Phoenix, for example, are down 34% year over year, while Las Vegas and San Francisco are down 33% and 31.2%, respectively. Cities that continue to hold up (at least, comparatively) include Denver (down 4%), Dallas (down 4.3%), Cleveland (down 6.1%) and Boston (down 7%).

Unfortunately, the housing market meltdown is showing few signs of relenting. Foreclosures year over year have risen dramatically. From 2007 to 2008, foreclosure filings increased by 81%, according to RealtyTrac.com, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties. From 2006 to 2008 they’re up by a breathtaking 225%. (Read our story here for more on the foreclosure situation.)

And while President Obama’s pledge to stabilize the housing market by encouraging loan modifications, lowering mortgage rates and offering thousands of dollars in tax credits to qualifying home buyers is encouraging, it will take some time before it has any positive effect on the market. (Read our story here.)

The indexes have a base value of 100 in January 2000, so a current index value of 139 translates to a 39% appreciation rate since January 2000 for a typical home located within the subject market. Even though most areas are up from their 2000 levels, they’ve fallen drastically for more than two years.

Here's how home prices in your metro area fared in December: