'07 home-price fall is largest in 20 years

Largest drop in 20 years? What's everybody waiting for? My guess is everybody's waiting until prices are heading up. Of course, nobody will notice an upward price trend until it has become, well, a trend. And we all know what that means ... people must be waiting to pay higher prices. - MT



Prices of existing homes plummeted nationally through 2007, ending the year down 8.9% -- the largest decline in 20 years, according to data released Tuesday.

In comparison, home prices fell 2.8% during the 1990-91 housing recession, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

"We reached a somber year-end for the housing market in 2007," said Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University professor and chief economist of MacroMarkets LLC. "Wherever you look things are bleak, with 17 of the 20 metro areas reporting annual declines and the remaining three reporting flat or moderate growth rates."

In metro Detroit, home prices fell 13.6% through the end of December compared with a year ago.

Cindy Kozlowski, a real estate agent with Max Broock Realtors in Rochester, said the 13.6% figure sounds a little higher than what she's been seeing in Oakland County's upscale neighborhoods.

"I'd say it is between 8% to 10%. They are factoring in the actual Detroit area, which is a completely different market," she said Tuesday. "They have more foreclosures than we have in Oakland County."

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