HOME prices fell in 22 US metropolitan areas in February, led by Sacramento and Las Vegas, as record foreclosures deepened the housing slump.
The price per square foot in Sacramento, California's capital, dropped 29.8 percent to US$161 from a year earlier, according to a report released last week by New York-based real-estate data firm Radar Logic Inc.
According to Bloomberg News, Las Vegas declined 26.2 percent to US$133 a square foot. New foreclosures hit an all-time high at the end of 2007 as borrowers with adjustable-rate loans walked away from properties before their payments increased, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The median price of an existing home dropped 7.7 percent from a year earlier in March, the National Association of Realtors said on April 22.
The report shows "weakness in most markets," Radar Logic said. "The increasing number of foreclosures occurring throughout the country has introduced a new supply of homes" and an "unusually motivated seller who is influenced by a desire for greater liquidity rather than obtaining a higher price."
US foreclosure filings more than doubled in the first quarter as payments rose for subprime adjustable mortgages and falling home prices left property owners unable to sell or refinance without losing money, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc, a seller of foreclosure data, said in a report last week.
Almost 650,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure during the quarter, or 1 in every 194 US households, RealtyTrac said. The number was 112 percent above a year ago.
California existing single-family home sales fell 25 percent in March from a year earlier, the state association of realtors said April 25. Nevada existing home sales dropped 44 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 34,400 from a year earlier, the biggest decline in the US, according to the National Association of Realtors.
San Diego was the third-worst US market in the Radar Logic report, with prices dropping 24.7 percent to US$254 a foot, and Phoenix was fourth, with a 19.4-percent decline. Los Angeles was fifth with a 19.3-percent drop. Miami recorded a 17.7-percent decline and Tampa, Florida, fell 16.4 percent.
Only three areas saw price increases in February from a year earlier. Charlotte, North Carolina, increased 3.6 percent, the most of the 25 cities surveyed; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, rose 3.4 percent and New York gained 1.1 percent.
Twenty areas showed an increase in transactions in February compared with January, the report said. Ten markets, including San Francisco and Cleveland, showed price increases from January to February. "It's much too soon to call this a turnaround," Radar Logic CEO Michael Feder said. "It's also equally unwise to simply believe that the market is in a total state of disarray."