Home prices fell in every region of the United States in September, a home price survey reported Tuesday.

Standard & Poor's reported prices fell in September in all 20 major cities covered by the Case-Shiller index -- even in cities that had been holding their own before the late-summer freeze in mortgage markets, MarketWatch reported.

Nationally, the Case-Shiller home price index showed prices fell 1.7 percent in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, and were down a 4.5 percent in year-to-date comparisons.

It was the largest quarter-to-quarter price decline in the 20 years covered by the index, MarketWatch said.

"There is no real positive news in today's data," said Robert Shiller, chief economist MacroMarkets, which handles the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller indexes.

Prices in all 20 cities dropped from the previous month, with the biggest declines in Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Tampa, Fla., the index said. For the 20 cities in the index, prices fell 4.9 percent in 2007 over 2006.

The Case-Shiller index, which tracks multiple sales of the same homes, is considered by many observers to be the best gauge of national and metropolitan-area real-estate values.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International



Publication date: 28 November 2007   

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