WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices are falling further, suggesting a bottom hasn’t been reached in many metro areas.

Millions of foreclosures are expected to pour onto the market in the coming years. That’s likely to force prices down and hurt even cities that had begun to rebound. Investigations into banks’ foreclosure paperwork could further deter buyers and weigh down prices.

The past few months have been the worst time in a decade for the housing market. Few people have bought homes, and among the small pool of buyers, many have purchased foreclosures and other distressed properties.

The impact was apparent Tuesday when Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller released its latest index for home prices in 20 major U.S metro areas. The average price for all markets fell 0.2 percent in August and 15 cities posted declines.

But the foreclosure problem is far from over. A “shadow inventory” of homes on the verge of foreclosure is bound to force prices lower well into next year. About 2 million loans are in foreclosure, and another 2.4 million borrowers have missed at least 90 days of mortgage payments, according to LPS Applied Analytics.

“It’s like a never-ending supply” of homes, said Daniel Alpert, managing partner at the New York investment bank Westwood Capital. He expects prices to fall another 10 percent over the next year — and not improve much after that.

Most troubled homeowners are concentrated in cities that have already been battered by the housing bust. One in 15 homeowners in Las Vegas received a foreclosure notice in the first half of the year, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. In the Fort Myers, Fla. metro area, the ratio was one in 20; in the Phoenix metro area it was one in 23.

“If you’re going down the hill, you tend to keep going down the hill,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at real estate data firm CoreLogic.

In Las Vegas, prices have fallen 57 percent from the peak four years ago. They are now at the lowest point since spring 2000. In August, they ticked up slightly — 0.1 percent — according to the Case-Shiller report.

Investors buying properties to sell or lease have helped to stabilize the nation’s worst housing market. Demand is also coming from retirees, said Paul Bell, a real estate agent with Prudential Americana Group in Las Vegas, who noted that 45 percent of the city’s buyers are paying cash

That’s “helping to contribute to a floor” in the city’s home prices, Bell said.

Some markets are doing relatively well. Chicago, Washington and New York have been showing consistent price increases since spring, though the pace of those increases faded over the summer. In the nation’s capital, the large number of federal employees and government contract workers have kept the economy strong. New York has seen fewer foreclosures than other cities.

California may offer the most complex housing picture. Even though the state’s major cities have started to show weakness, prices are well above the bottom of spring 2009.

The San Francisco area’s home prices have surged more than 21 percent since then. Prices in San Diego have risen nearly 14 percent and had increased for 15 consecutive months before falling in August.

In Los Angeles they have increased by more than 10 percent in that period. Home prices would have to rise by more than 50 percent in each of the markets to return to their peaks during the housing boom.

It’s still unclear how the allegations of lenders using flawed documents to foreclosure on homes will affect housing markets. Bank of America and Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage have started processing foreclosures again, after calling a temporary halt while they reviewed mortgage documents.

Some buyers are worried that the sale of a foreclosure could be contested — or even canceled — if the previous owner claims the foreclosure was invalid.

In an October survey taken by the National Association of Realtors, about 23 percent of real estate agents said they have a client who is no longer interested in purchasing a foreclosed property due to the foreclosure-document mess.

Comments

Actually, the Feds are suggesting that it might be time to eliminate the deductions people get to pay on their annual mortgage interest.
If you think things are crazy today, just wait until the Feds create two types of ownership. The one owner gets to continue deducting his mortgage interest and the other buyer cannot.
That will play havoc with housing prices and send them downward due to chaos and confusion among the buying public.
Any time the government messes with the free market, the government makes things worse.
We are in housing chaos today. Tomorrow the Feds will make it even worse.Reply 30Ted 8 minutes ago Report AbuseThe “flood” of foreclosed properties will be hitting the market for several years. Thus, the downward pressure on housing values will continue for years.
With our jobs going overseas, we may never again see housing values go upward more than 1% a year.Reply 46Roi 25 minutes ago Report AbuseTo meny people living over there income.Replies (2)
70A Yahoo! User 25 minutes ago Report AbuseOf course its down. The bankers and wall street are cash rich with the 700 Billion dollar TARP BAILOUT. They are waiting for prices to crash so they can buy things up on the pennies. Housing is dead. The congress is hiding the derivatives fraud by using housing. Congress works hand in hand with wall street to help hide the 28 Trillion dollars in fraud, estimated by bloomberg news. The homeowners of the USA will have to pay the burden for the crimes on wall street…how much simpler can it be. I would not buy a house now because you may loose 20% right off the bat.Reply
142A Yahoo! User 39 minutes ago Report AbuseThe way this country is headed, a cave might be the best choice for your next home.Reply 81Pokerrock 49 minutes ago Report AbuseYippeee Skipee I can buy a home now whenever I want and take as much time as I want to make sure theres no mold leaks or anything and to make sure I like the neighborhood . What a novelty. No need to rush take all the time in the world I need unlike 5 years ago when folks were signing anything ASAP without reading the fine print just becuase their friends told them to hurry up and buy anything . You in my world now.Reply
126A Yahoo! User 1 hour ago Report AbuseThe housing bubble is just the beginning. The market is the next bubble to pop, actually explode. We have let speculators create artificial prices and values. The market will correct itself by AT LEAST 2000-3000 points in the DOW and home prices have a bit more to fall. You can not have the number of homes on the market in addition to the number of homes that have yet to be put on the market and reasonably think prices will go anywhere but down. Forget low interest rates. Who wants to take out a loan on anything without the confidence of job security? Job security left with NAFTA. Consumer spending will not and can not sustain the loss of jobs and increased debt the banks and government create. The trade deficits and unfair trade policies that have been created, promoted, and established by this pathetic government have done nothing but benefit business. Good for the stockholders, CEOs, upper management, etc because it allows companies to manufacture goods out of this country for slave labor wages and sell them to make bigger profits. Unfortunately while that may make the upper 10% of this country wealthier it does nothing but hurt the other 90% that big business, banks, and government are begging to borrow money, take on more debt, and spend, spend, spend so they can make even more money because the US economy is driven by consumer spending and if the spending includes taking on more debt; even better for big business and banks. Obviously the way things are run now it doesn’t matter if the consumer can’t pay debt because the government will pay it NOW and we can all pick up the tab over the next century.
Quit voting for the people that the media tells you are worthy. 99.9% of government are not true representations of 99.9% of this population. Quit letting the media paint bad pictures of people that can and will make a difference. Just because someone has never received a citation for DWI?OWI does not mean they have never done it. Is it something that shouldn’t be done; of course. But letting a person represent you because they lie about having ever done it is foolish and gullible at best. Be honest with yourself, who grew up in the sixties and did not at least try smoking weed or know somebody that did. Hell, I know really great doctors and scientists that at least tried it. Nobody goes through life without experimenting, learning, and yes, making bad decisions. Have you ever heard the saying you can not become a true professional without making mistakes? Harvard educations and owning million dollar businesses and having a family name does not make anyone better than anyone else. Most of the historically significant CONTRIBUTORS to mankind have come from nothing. Hell, look at Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Einstein, Jesus, Buddha…
More than half the time and money in Washington is wasted on dog and pony show procedure. If that was important then why on earth did it get thrown out the window when it came to READING and KNOWING what was is the TARP and HEALTH CARE legislation? Start voting for people that can and will make a difference because they know what it is like to buy their own gas, get their own groceries, do not have nannies or maids with no documentation, won’t vote themselves raises and rape the american taxpayers for Rolls Royce health care that nobody else deserves because we are somehow second class citizens, and then collect outrageous pensions and health care after office. Being in office was a way to do a service for your country not promote your own self-interest and have a leisurely career. Why do these people think they are better or more deserving of anything than you or I?
You get what you accept..Replies (2)
42A Yahoo! User 1 hour ago Report AbuseThe housing bubble is just the beginning. The market is the next bubble to pop, actually explode. We have let speculators create artificial prices and values. The market will correct itself by AT LEAST 2000-3000 points in the DOW and home prices have a bit more to fall. You can not have the number of homes on the market in addition to the number of homes that have yet to be put on the market and reasonably think prices will go anywhere but down. Forget low interest rates. Who wants to take out a loan on anything without the confidence of job security? Job security left with NAFTA. Consumer spending will not and can not sustain the loss of jobs and increased debt the banks and government create. The trade deficits and unfair trade policies that have been created, promoted, and established by this pathetic government have done nothing but benefit business. Good for the stockholders, CEOs, upper management, etc because it allows companies to manufacture goods out of this country for slave labor wages and sell them to make bigger profits. Unfortunately while that may make the upper 10% of this country wealthier it does nothing but hurt the other 90% that big business, banks, and government are begging to borrow money, take on more debt, and spend, spend, spend so they can make even more money because the US economy is driven by consumer spending and if the spending includes taking on more debt; even better for big business and banks. Obviously the way things are run now it doesn’t matter if the consumer can’t pay debt because the government will pay it NOW and we can all pick up the tab over the next century.
Quit voting for the people that the media tells you are worthy. 99.9% of government are not true representations of 99.9% of this population. Quit letting the media paint bad pictures of people that can and will make a difference. Just because someone has never received a citation for DWI?OWI does not mean they have never done it. Is it something that shouldn’t be done; of course. But letting a person represent you because they lie about having ever done it is foolish and gullible at best. Be honest with yourself, who grew up in the sixties and did not at least try smoking weed or know somebody that did. Hell, I know really great doctors and scientists that at least tried it. Nobody goes through life without experimenting, learning, and yes, making bad decisions. Have you ever heard the saying you can not become a true professional without making mistakes? Harvard educations and owning million dollar businesses and having a family name does not make anyone better than anyone else. Most of the historically significant CONTRIBUTORS to mankind have come from nothing. Hell, look at Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Einstein, Jesus, Buddha…
More than half the time and money in Washington is wasted on dog and pony show procedure. If that was important then why on earth did it get thrown out the window when it came to READING and KNOWING what was is the TARP and HEALTH CARE legislation? Start voting for people that can and will make a difference because they know what it is like to buy their own gas, get their own groceries, do not have nannies or maids with no documentation, won’t vote themselves raises and rape the american taxpayers for Rolls Royce health care that nobody else deserves because we are somehow second class citizens, and then collect outrageous pensions and health care after office. Being in office was a way to do a service for your country not promote your own self-interest and have a leisurely career. Why do these people think they are better or more deserving of anything than you or I?
You get what you accept…Replies (1) 97Desertdweller 1 hour ago Report AbuseDont buy or rent a foreclosure! This will force banks to stop foreclosing, sticks them with all existing foreclosures, makes them work with people to stay in their homes, starts immediately improving the value of our homes that we have left, improves the housing industry, improves the economy, forces closure of insolvents banks, leaving the banks that work with people…Replies (1) 71Paul 2 hours ago Report AbuseDo we want the market to recover or not?
The housing market will not recover until excess inventory is absorbed. That is an undisputed fact! Forclosures are saturating regional markets driving home values down, Why is it so hard for the banks to modify mortgages. Im not talking about principal reduction. Im just talking about lower rate modifications to keep excess inventory off the market which is well known to drive down neighboring values and taxable municipal values. Foreclosure cost more than a simple modification. Hello? Doesnt it seem a little strange that we supported the very banks that got us into this mess but are not supporting the people effected by it. I keep hearing that people should have known that there might not be an opportunity in the future to refinance the array of mortgage instraments that were available prior to the meltdown. So I dont mean to blast the media but we have alot of them that have a lack of understanding of such matters and are taking the perspective that we need to see how low the prices will go as if there some nessesity to so see the market get worse. Do we want the market to recover or not? Or do we want to take the wait and see approach while ALL of our home equity goes down the tubes?
I live in that police abusive stink hole called Vegas & Henderson, and the homes are crap.Chicken wire stucco build houses that crack horrable.
It better and safer in Detroit then in Nevada. Not from any criminals but from the cops and judges.Prison’s are filled with people involved in auto accidents, drunk and roudy, sex with prostitutes and anything or kind of lies and stories a cop can come up with. The judges side with them and they are litterely getting away with murder. Killing mothers and pregnant women, killing children and teens and beating the elderly..
So you have got to ask who is causing the low prices., not what.Replies (2)
183A Yahoo! User 3 hours ago Report AbuseHomes are more than 30% overpriced. The median home price should not be over 3 times the median salary.
In bad times as this, the ratio should be aorund 2 indicating 50% over-priced. There are so many homes on the west coast priced at $400-600K and that is 10+ times the median salary.
UNSTABLE but Bernanke is always wanting instability, against the amndate of the Federal Reserve.
Look at how he even wants to create greater inflation. See how he is making this over-priced stock market. See how he didn’t raise interest rates when he became the chairman to stop the housing bubble as he was more concerned about not spooking the stock market.
I have this guy nailed down 100%. He can’t fool me and I hope you people stop letting him fool you with his malfeasance.Replies (1) 180Combover 3 hours ago Report AbuseHousing values have nowhere to go but down. When interest rates start ceeping back up they will put even a greater pressure on home prices.Since interest rates have nowhere to go but up, prices have nowhere to go but down. My two cents.Replies (3) 101Frogdo9 3 hours ago Report AbuseAug House price index is up 0.4% according to FHA. Who is lying?Reply 56James 3 hours ago Report AbuseFor many people purchasing a home and living in it till payoff or close will be the only time they accumulate a sizeable sum of money regardless of what the market does through the years. So its a saving plan and they get to live in it.Replies (1) 94Julius 4 hours ago Report AbuseBad news for a home seller….should be GOOD NEWS for a home buyer! Low values and crazy low interest rates, some as low as 4.25 for 30 year fixed. Some realize this great time to buy but financially are not stable enough to make the jump. Others who are financially secure enough to purchase and do not, will look back at this time “kicking themselves”. I realize property values will likely decline further….as long as you buy near the bottom “zone”, the risk should be minimal. No one can predict the very bottom….Diane from New Jersey.Reply
204A Yahoo! User 5 hours ago Report AbuseThe housing bubble is just the beginning. The market is the next bubble to pop, actually explode. We have let speculators create artificial prices and values. The market will correct itself by AT LEAST 2000-3000 points in the DOW and home prices have a bit more to fall. You can not have the number of homes on the market in addition to the number of homes that have yet to be put on the market and reasonably think prices will go anywhere but down. Forget low interest rates. Who wants to take out a loan on anything without the confidence of job security? Job security left with NAFTA. Consumer spending will not and can not sustain the loss of jobs and increased debt the banks and government create. The trade deficits and unfair trade policies that have been created, promoted, and established by this pathetic government have done nothing but benefit business. Good for the stockholders, CEOs, upper management, etc because it allows companies to manufacture goods out of this country for slave labor wages and sell them to make bigger profits. Unfortunately while that may make the upper 10% of this country wealthier it does nothing but hurt the other 90% that big business, banks, and government are begging to borrow money, take on more debt, and spend, spend, spend so they can make even more money because the US economy is driven by consumer spending and if the spending includes taking on more debt; even better for big business and banks. Obviously the way things are run now it doesn’t matter if the consumer can’t pay debt because the government will pay it NOW and we can all pick up the tab over the next century.
Quit voting for the people that the media tells you are worthy. 99.9% of government are not true representations of 99.9% of this population. Harvard educations and owning million dollar businesses and having a family name does not make anyone better than anyone else. Most of the historically significant CONTRIBUTORS to mankind have come from nothing. Hell, look at Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Einstein, Jesus, Buddha…
More than half the time and money in Washington is wasted on dog and pony show procedure. If that was important then why on earth did it get thrown out the window when it came to READING and KNOWING what was is the TARP and HEALTH CARE legislation? Start voting for people that can and will make a difference because they know what it is like to buy their own gas, get their own groceries, do not have nannies or maids with no documentation, won’t vote themselves raises and rape the american taxpayers for Rolls Royce health care that nobody else deserves because we are somehow second class citizens, and then collect outrageous pensions and health care after office. Being in office was a way to do a service for your country not promote your own self-interest and have a leisurely career. Why do these people think they are better or more deserving of anything than you or I?
You get what you accept…Replies (1) 02Deeg 5 hours ago Report Abuseya’ll come to Oklahoma….housing here seems like it hasn’t been affected at all, and the price you pay now for a decent 3/2/2 in good neighborhood is about what you would pay in DALLAS. We are still waiting for any kind of a “bottom” here, but it hasn’t arrived yet, barely knocked on the door. I guess we’ll be waiting another 2 years to buy….IF they don’t take the deduction away, in which case, why buy at all?Replies (1) 130WIN THIS WAR 6 hours ago Report AbuseIt is just a bubble. With Chase and BOA forclosing and FLOODING the market at the fastest pace ever recorded in US history (trying to get as many done as possible before the FED interviens) we are about to see another 10% drop in property values nationwide due to the NEW GLUT of bank owned (fed owned) properties by 2011.Reply 61Sean L 6 hours ago Report AbuseI will just continue to rent out my 2nd home, rents are up, home values are down. Doesn’t make sense but that’s the way it is now. People are reluctant to buy and often pay more to rent than own.
People are funny….Some how it’s bad when home prices go down, but good when gasoline, food, cars, and everything else that is purchased goes down in price.You either want inflation or deflation, you can’t have both.Reply
102A Yahoo! User 7 hours ago Report AbuseBuy American! Give an American worker a job. We should all look at the labels on the clothes we buy, the cars we buy,the technical equipment and the home maintenance we buy. Just that could be a start.Replies (5) 250YesWeCan 7 hours ago Report AbuseIsn’t it funny how houses have gone 40% down in price the past few years, but property assessments are hardly down at all? I thought they were supposed to reflect the value of the property. Silly me.Replies (2) 20PK123 7 hours ago Report Abusethats equivalent to $200 for every $100,000 of house.Reply 230B 7 hours ago Report AbuseI am currently looking to buy a house. For the past year I have seen the same houses on the market not even moving… Houses that were 350k are down to 275k (Phila. Burbs). Good news for me but bad if your a home owner… People are greedy by nature. Buy only what you need and lets stop putting on a show of how we can be good consumers. Of the 2 people I know forclosed on one drives a new BMW 5 series and one bought a new hummer last year. I drive through some of the poorer parts of Phila and I see thousand dollar rims on cars falling apart. I hear sound systems booming…. Whats wrong with a savings account people? Why do we not care that we buy everything in China? People are mad our jobs go to China etc but have no problem buying that Toyota or Honda. I know people just about broke that buy 80 dollar Ed Hardie t-shirts….Time to get priorities straight America… Time to be a bad consumer. Be greed with your money. Next time, ask yourself, do I really need this? Save your money, you’ll be glad you did someday.Reply 92Ctbobster 7 hours ago Report AbuseThere will be more bad news to come. Bank of America’s resumed foreclosure proceedings will augment the housing inventory; which will further de-value housing prices. First time homeowners may want to wait a bit longer to see how this plays out. However, I understand the Obama administration is considering the repeal of mortgage interest as tax deduction in order to pay for his spending mess. This obviously will adversely impact one’s ability to purchase property.Replies (1) 211Mister Toad 8 hours ago Report AbuseIt’s about time home prices go back to normal. A home should be some place to live in, but we have made it into our personal PIGGY BANK !!! Shame on us.Reply
152A Yahoo! User 8 hours ago Report AbuseThis is definitely a good news! Everybody knows home prices are still high, especially in San Francisco or LA where they’re ridiculously high! The faster they get back to the balance with current level of income the better!Reply 101No One 8 hours ago Report AbuseThis article does not even give the year-over-year change in the index! That is the THE headline number in the report, yet it is not even mentioned? Analysts must avoid shaping facts to fit their preconceived conclusions. (It was up 1.7% by the way).
No hope – prices will continue to decline until this president it out of office… Stop trying to reform healthcare and socialize this country and start reducing taxes and cutting useless spending on such programs. Reform social security and make it private so we can actually see gains on our contributions and receive a payout when we retire rather than paying in to cover the expense of the current system. Forget about home prices, and start looking at the big picture – - -