Boston-area home values continue slide

April 26, 2011 02:06 PM E-mail| |Comments ()| Text size +

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Boston-area home values continued to fall in February for the seventh consecutive month, according to new data released today by the S&P;/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, a marker that measures repeat home sales nationwide.

Boston home values dropped by about 1.5 percent compared with the month before, a slightly larger drop than the 1.1 percent fall registered by 20 top cities tracked by the national index.

Karl E. Case, a cofounder of the index and a retired Wellesley College economics professor, said housing values likely fell because buyers are having a hard time getting financing and sellers are reluctant to drop their prices. He said the Boston area housing market is still much stronger than other areas of the country, which saw dramatic price drops since a peak in 2005 and 2006.

Case also attributed recent falling home values in Boston to February's cold weather, which kept buyers indoors and sellers waiting to hang up a "for sale" sign. Boston-area home values are still about 2.8 percent higher than they were at their most recent low in March of 2009, according to the Case-Shiller data.

"I think you will see the beginnings of a turnaround in April and May,'' he said. "We are not in bad shape."

The Case-Shiller data found nationwide that prices are lower than they were a year ago but slightly higher than the bottom of the current housing cycle, which occurred in 2009. Detroit was the only city to post a positive monthly change in February, with prices swelling by 1 percent, according to new data. Experiencing the steepest month-to-month dips, Minneapolis saw prices fall by 3.1 percent and San Francisco values dropped 2.6 percent in February compared to January.

David M. Blitzer, chair of the S&P; index committee, sees little good news in February's housing data.

"Recent data on existing home sales, housing starts, foreclosure activity and employment confirm that we are still in a slow recovery,'' Blitzer said.

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