Denver home prices down 4.5 percent in 2007

From the Denver Business Journal

Prices home sellers got for their properties in 2007 declined in metro Denver, but not as much as the United States as a whole, according to a Standard & Poor's study released Tuesday.

Denver-area home prices dipped 4.5 percent last year, compared to an 8.9 percent decrease nationwide, said the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Prices relate to the resale of existing single-family homes.

Miami remained this country's weakest market last year, with a 17.5 percent drop in home prices. Other markets with double-digit declines included Las Vegas and Phoenix (-15.3 percent each) and San Francisco (-10.8 percent).

Only three of the 20 markets evaluated by the S&P survey had increases in home prices -- Charlotte, N.C. (2.3 percent), Portland, Ore. (1.2 percent) and Seattle (.5 percent).
Markets with home price declines similar to metro Denver's included Chicago (-4.5 percent) and New York (-5.6 percent).

Dallas had the lowest drop in home prices at 2.4 percent.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index tracks the value of single-family housing in 20 major metropolitan areas, and is released monthly. The index doesn't report actual selling prices.

Data for the index is maintained by a committee consisting of representatives from Standard & Poor's, Fiserv Inc. and MacroMarkets LLC. S&P is part of The McGraw-Hill Cos.