Zillow is out with its fourth-quarter Real Estate Market Reports. Among the most significant findings:
Home values in the United States fell for the eighth consecutive quarter, declining 11.6 percent during 2008 to a Zillow Home Value Index of $192,119…
The declines mean that U.S. homeowners lost a cumulative $3.3 trillion in home values during 2008, with much of that loss coming in the fourth quarter. Homeowners lost $1.4 trillion during the fourth quarter alone; more than the $1.3 trillion lost during all of 2007. Since the housing market's peak in 2006, $6.1 trillion in home values have been lost.
Foreclosures made up nearly one in five (19.9 percent) of all transactions in 2008…
Across the country, 10.9 percent of all real estate transactions in 2008 were short sales…
As home values declined through 2008, more American homeowners have become underwater on their mortgages. At the end of the year, one in six (17.6 percent) of all homeowners had negative equity. This number rose from the end of the third quarter, when one in seven (14.3 percent) homeowners was underwater…
Despite the bad news across much of the country, 21 of 161 markets are not feeling the pinch of declining home values. Home values in the Pittsburgh MSA were flat (-0.1 percent) in 2008. In the Fayetteville, N.C. MSA, home values increased 6.9 percent in 2008. The Yakima, Wash., MSA was not far behind, with home values increasing 6.2 percent during the year. Other areas in New York State, the Midwest and the South continue to experience steady or increasing home values.
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Geldpress of WA 3:03PM February 04, 2009
Donnie of WI 6:49AM February 04, 2009
Thommy Sides of FL 6:02AM February 04, 2009