U.S. home price drop at record pace in December

Reuters reports today:

From the housing market peak in the second quarter of 2006, home prices have plummeted 26.7 percent…

Yale professor Robert Shiller says the declines are not finished. Tech Ticker paraphrased him yesterday as saying:

Despite the 25 percent nationwide decline since the 2007 peak, U.S. house prices have still only fallen halfway to fair value. So whatever you think of Obama’s plan, don’t count on a quick housing-market turnaround.

See also:

Boston Globe: “Warren Group: Local housing prices fall by 20%” (2/24/09)
The new year got off to a slow start in the local housing market as the January median price for a single family home in Massachusetts fell to $259,250, the lowest the local median price has been since March 2002, the Warren Group said today…

The number of sales was also off in the Bay State. Condominium sales hit a 17-year low for the month of January. As for single-family homes, 1,908 single-family homes were sold in January, down 10.3 percent from the 2,126 sold in January 2008. For single family homes, it was the lowest sales volume for the month of January in the 22 years that the Warren Group has been tracking the Massachusetts residential real estate market, the firm said…

Addressing Massachusetts condo sales, the Warren Group said in a press release: “There were 806 condo sales statewide in January, a 29 percent decrease from 1,136 during the same month in 2008. The median condo price fell 22.2 percent to $209,900 in January from $269,950 a year earlier.”