TOM MAST Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Sunday, August 17, 2008 12:00 am
U.S. home values in the second quarter posted their largest year-over-year decline in the past 12 years, Zillow Real Estate Market Reports indicates.
Home values dropping 9.9 percent from second quarter 2007 and 1.7 percent from first quarter 2008, to a U.S. median of $206,919, according to Zillow's home value index.
The median U.S. home value hasn't been as low since the fourth quarter 2004, Zillow.com reported. Nearly one-third of homeowners who purchased since 2003 now have a negative equity - meaning current value is less than the original mortgage.
The highest rates of negative equity were among people who purchased in 2006, when most markets peaked. Nearly half of such buyers in the U.S. now have negative equity. Such people placed a median down payment of 10 percent.
The negative rate is nearly double in the Stockton, Calif., metropolitan statistical area (MSA), where almost everyone (95 percent) who bought in 2006 - with a median down payment of zero - is underwater, Zillow.com said.
Neither Casper nor Cheyenne was part of the analysis, which was based on 165 MSAs.
"The second quarter is the sixth consecutive quarter of home value declines and we see little promise of turnaround in the short-term as the rates of decline have yet to slow and, in fact, actually accelerated in many markets," Stan Humphries, Zillow vice president of data and analytics, said in a press release.
Zillow.com is an online real estate service.
Business Editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@trib.com, or call 307-266-0574.