Twin Cities home prices take a 20% plunge

In the Twin Cities, home prices fell 20 percent in January from a year earlier, the largest annual decline on record.
Housing continues to grope for a bottom in the Twin Cities, new numbers out Tuesday show. Local home prices in January took their steepest annual dive yet, according to the latest Standard and Poor's Case-Shiller home price index, while the number of residential construction permits issued locally in March fell to one of the lowest monthly totals on record.
The upshot: Housing, the economic sector that triggered the nation's worst recession in generations, remains ravaged by foreclosure-related activity and still has a backlog of inventory. Buyers benefit, but the slide in values is squeezing household balance sheets and wallets. In the Twin Cities, home prices fell 20 percent in January from a year earlier, according to the Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major metropolitian areas. That's the area's largest yearly drop on record, though the index declined less in January than in December, possibly indicating that the bottom is nearby.
The association has been tracking the two local markets separately to illustrate the different dynamics behind the Twin Cities overall median sale price, which now stands at a very low $150,000.

By JENNIFER BJORHUS,
Star Tribune Full Story Here
March 31, 2009