22/02 Home prices in U.S. big cities further drop in December 2010 on weak market

Home prices in U.S. big cities further drop in December 2010 on weak market English.news.cn 2011-02-22 23:08:53 FeedbackPrintRSS WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- U.S. home prices in 20 metropolitan areas nationwide including New York, Miami and Boston continued to decline in December 2010, a leading measure for the U.S. residential housing market revealed on Tuesday. The Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, revealed that the U.S. national 20-city home price index dipped 2.4 percent in December 2010 from their December 2009 levels, fresh evidence of the still slackening U.S. property market. "We ended 2010 with a weak report, and 18 of 20 cities are down over the last 12 months. Despite improvements in the overall economy, housing continues to drift lower and weaker," says David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard and Poor's. Of all the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the report, 19 metropolitan areas saw a price decline in December 2010 over November. The only exception was Washington D.C., which registered a slight price gain of 0.3 percent in the period. Blitzer said that home prices in 11 markets, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Phoenix and Seattle had hit their lowest levels from their peaks in 2006 and 2007. "We have seen more markets hit new lows in each of the past three months," he added. Editor: yan