Home Prices Post Record Annual Decline

Americans are feeling grim about the prospects of any turnaround. Consumer confidence index sank to new lows in February as huge job cuts, shrinking retirement accounts and plunging home prices fueled fears, the Conference Board said Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index plunged 18.2 percent during the quarter from the same period a year ago, the largest drop in its 21-year history.

Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Tuesday that home prices dropped 8.2 percent from a year earlier, its largest annual decline on record since 1991.

The reports did offer a meager amount of good news. The rate of year-over-year price declines moderated in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington, according to the Case-Shiller index, while cities in Washington, North Dakota and Texas posted year-over-year quarterly gains, the government said.

But the Sun Belt cities continue to get clobbered. Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco all saw home values lose more than 30 percent in December, the Case-Shiller index said. And the government index showed many California and Florida cities clocked their worst declines in the fourth quarter.

Prices in the Case-Shiller 20-city index have plunged 27 percent from their peak in the summer of 2006, and the 10-city index has fallen more than 28 percent. Both indices have recorded year-over-year declines for 24 straight months.

On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors releases its existing home sales data for January and the Commerce Department releases its new home sales figures for January on Thursday.