Real Estate
Home Prices Plummet Nationally, Rockies Fare Better
By Jonathan Weber , 12-30-08
Housing prices across the country dropped by a record 18% in October over the year-earlier period, according to the widely watched Case-Shiller housing index, a grim indication that the real estate meltdown is far from over. But there were some glimmers of hope for the Rocky Mountain West and the Pacific Northwest.
The Case-Shiller iIndex tracks only the top 20 metropolitan areas, so most of the Mountain West is completely off the map. But Denver posted a decline of just 5.2%, the second-best performance (behind Dallas) of any city in the index. Seattle and Portland both saw declines of about 10% - hardly good news in most circumstances but encouraging next to the 31% declines in Las Vegas and San Francisco and the 32.7% freefall in Phoenix.
The housing slump started later in the Northern Rockies and the Pacific Northwest than it did elsewhere, with prices peaking in 2007 rather than late 2005 or early 2006. Some economists see that as an indication that the downtown will be shorter and shallower here than elsewhere.
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