MW: Home values down for 17th straight quarter: report
By Steve Goldstein
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. home values fell 4.3% in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, marking the 17th consecutive quarterly decline, according to a report from the online real estate firm Zillow.com. The length and severity of the current downturn is unprecedented since the Great Depression, with home values 25% below their 2006 peak, the report said. The Zillow Home Value Index, down 1.2% from the second quarter, reached $179,900. Of single-family homeowners with mortgages, 23.2% were underwater, the highest since Zillow began tracking negative equity in 2009. The Home Value Index at the national level is calculated using a weighted average of the median home value for each county and includes data from 440 metropolitan statistical areas.
