New report shows home prices on the decline

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new government report says U.S. home prices marked a quarterly decline for the first time in 13 years in the third quarter.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says home prices dipped four-tenths of a percent nationwide in the July-September period, compared with the previous quarter.

Compared with the third quarter of 2006, the agency’s index of U.S home prices rose 1.8 percent. It is the smallest year-over-year increase since 1995.

Many of the cities and states experiencing the sharpest declines in the quarter had posted the sharpest increases a couple of years ago during the housing boom.

Price declines were steepest in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island.

Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight
http://www.ofheo.gov/

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