Denver's ""Integrated Asset Services, LLC"":http://www.iasreo.com (IAS) released its latest ""IAS360 House Price Index"":http://www.iasreo.com/ias360_update.html on Tuesday, which IAS says is evidence of a continued tailspin for the U.S. housing market. The company reported that nationally, the industry experienced a staggering 3.5 percent plunge in house prices for January, the worst single-month decline IAS has recorded since the crisis began.
According to IAS, January’s drop alone represents more than $610 billion in reduced value of U.S. housing stock and brings the total loss from the start of the economic meltdown last September to roughly $2.4 trillion. Following a 1.1 percent decline in December, the national housing index has now fallen 24.7 percent from its peak in November of 2006, IAS said.
IAS360’s granular data indicates the areas that experienced the largest gains during the housing bubble, California and Florida in particular, are continuing to be hit the hardest by falling property values. Three counties in Florida - Charlotte (Punta Gorda), Lee (Fort Myers), and Pasco (New Port Richey) - are now down more than 50 percent from their highs in 2006, IAS reported. In California, Monterey County has also crossed the 50 percent threshold, as has San Joaquin, which leads all other counties with a depreciation of 59.9 percent since the 2006 peak. All of the 10 hardest hit counties on IAS' index are in Florida and California.
The January IAS report also reveals that the nation’s wealthiest counties have not at all been insulated from the national decline. Three Virginia counties - Loudoun, Stafford, and Prince William have each fallen more than 30 percent from their respective peaks. Fairfax, Virginia, is down 22.3 percent, and Montgomery, Maryland, is down 17.8 percent.
Dave McCarthy, president and CEO of Integrated Asset Services, said, ""These are unprecedented times to say the least. We’re seeing house prices plummet at a rapid pace throughout the country. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the data for signs of a bottoming out.""
On a regional basis, IAS said the Midwest, which has been particularly impacted by rising unemployment and economic turmoil, fell another 4.5 percent in January, bringing the region’s total decline since September 2008 to 12.4 percent. The other three census regions were down in line with the national drop of 3.5 percent for the month, IAS said, although the West, not surprisingly, far outpaces the rest of the country with what is now a 23.4 percent decline for the last 12 months.
At the MSA level (Metropolitan Statistical Area), while no area moved into positive territory in January, IAS reported that only San Francisco and Miami declined noticeably more than the national average, falling 6.4 percent and 5.4 percent respectively.
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