U.S. home prices fell for the eighth consecutive month to the lowest levels in at least six years, a private report said Tuesday.

Home values dropped 4.4 percent in the 12 months that ended in August, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index said.

"There is really no positive news in today’s report," said Yale University economist Robert Shiller, who created the index with Wellesley College economics professor Karl Case.

Most metropolitan areas show "declining or vanishing returns on both an annual and monthly basis," said Schiller, who is also chief economist for MacroMarkets LLC, which collaborates with Standard & Poor's Corp. on the indicator.

"At both the national and metro area levels, the fall in home prices is showing no real signs of a slowdown or turnaround," he said.

Eight of the index's 20 metropolitan areas showed their lowest annual returns ever recorded, with drops in Cleveland of 4.1 percent; Las Vegas 7.6 percent; Miami 7.8 percent; Minneapolis 4 percent; Phoenix 8 percent; San Diego 8.3 percent; Tampa, Fla., 10.1 percent; and Washington of 7.2 percent.

"Only two metro areas -- Denver and Detroit -- showed improvement in their annual returns and even those were reports of slightly less negative numbers," Schiller said.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International



Publication date: 31 October 2007   

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