How would you feel if you knew that your house was worth less now than it was eight years ago? If you live in Detroit or one of the other areas that have been the hardest hit by falling home prices, then this scenario could be reality.
In truth, home prices fell their steepest rate ever since the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index has been keeping track of housing prices. The 10-city index, which has been keeping track of prices for 21 years, also showed the steepest decline in history. Overall, housing prices dropped 15.8 percent when compared to last year at the same time. These numbers are for the month of May.
No single city in the index showed any price gains, and overall, no price increases have been made since August of 2006. Home values have fallen 18.4 percent from July 2006 to May 2008.
If there is a ray of hope in all of this is that some metro areas are seeing smaller annual declines in home values. These areas are: Tampa, Boston, Detroit (the percentage lost was small in comparison), Minneapolis, Dallas and Atlanta.
The worst drop in home values occurred in Las Vegas, with their prices falling by a whopping 28.4 percent.
Should you be worried about this decline? Obviously no one wants to think that they have negative equity in their home. If you are faced with having or wanting to sell your home, you may have to work harder and accept less than you thought you would get for it. It also may be harder to get a home equity loan or line of credit. On the other side, if you are shopping for a home, you may be in good shape to get a great deal.
Check out some of the related articles below that may help you get those most for your home.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. Starting June 1st, don’t miss her articles in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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