US Real Estate Market Case Study:Home Prices down to Lowest Levels in Almost Five Years

The nation's home prices continued their downward spiral, falling a record 18.2% through November in the 20 largest metropolitan areas including metro Detroit.



The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices released Tuesday also showed the top 10 metro areas saw home price declines of 19.1%.

Home prices have fallen every month since August 2006, according to the index.

Metro Detroit home prices fell another 3.1% from October and are down 20.7% from November 2007, according to S&P/Case-Shiller. Detroit remains the only metro area where home prices have fallen below the level set in 2000.

"Overall, more than half of the metro areas had record annual declines," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's.

Eight areas posted their largest monthly declines on record through November -- Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Dallas, New York, Portland, Ore., and Seattle. Dallas and Denver had lower declines with prices falling 3.3% and 4.3%, respectively, in the past year.