CSBJ Daily

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of national home prices recorded its steepest quarterly decline since the index’s inception in 1987 as home prices fell 14.1 percent nationally compared to the first quarter of 2007.

“The nation appears to remain on a downward path,” said David Blitzer of Standard & Poor, “19 of the 20 metro areas are reporting annual declines, and six of those are now at negative rates exceeding 20 percent. Looking closely at these returns, you can see that 15 of the metro areas are also reporting record lows, and 11 are in double digit decline, with Chicago being the latest metro area to join these ranks.

Denver reported a quarter-to-quarter decline of 5 percent, which may indicate that Colorado’s largest market is stabilizing, especially when compared to other western cities such as Las Vegas (-25.9 percent) and Phoenix (-23 percent).