Home price double dip now official, study contends
Nationally, home prices have sunk below their previous low, set back during the recession in 2009, Clear Capital reports.
April home prices were .7 percent below levels last reached in March, 2009, the latest milestone in a now months-long slide in real estate values, the research firm notes.
Of course, the last time prices were headed south, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008, we saw a panicked Congress and real estate industry rush through the home buyer tax credit, which artificially buoyed sales and prices.
This time around, there's no home buyer tax credit to bail things out and lots of downward momentum to keep prices falling in the coming months.
Greater Boston weighs in at No. 15 on Clear Capital's list of "lowest performing" markets, with a 6.8 percent, quarter-over-quarter decline in prices and a 2.2 percent year-over-year drop.
That's compared to 4.9 percent, quarter-over-quarter price drop nationally.
Other warning flags include:
- Taken over a nine month period, the decline in housing prices looks even more serious, with an 11.5 percent drop nationally.
- All major metro areas tracked by Clear Capital reported a quarter-over-quarter decline in home prices.
- Sales of bank-owned properties now account for 34.5 percent of all home sales
