Us housing decline ‘increasing’

New data from Knight Frank reveals that the US housing market remains ‘troubled’…

New figures from the Knight Frank Global House Price Index reveal that House prices in the US have continued to decrease over the last quarter and the pace of decline appears to be increasing. Prices nationally have fallen 0.3% over the last year as the 1.3% quarterly decline in the last three months of 2007 negated slight gains earlier in the year.

The only state where prices did not fall in the final quarter of 2007 was Maine. However, not all areas of the US have seen prices fall over the course of the year. Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana and Alaska all saw price inflation of over 6%, with Utah achieving 9.3% to Q4 2007.

The greatest declines in residential property prices were observed in California, where prices fell by 6.6%, Nevada (5.9%), Florida (4.7%) and Michigan (4.3%).

Liam Bailey, Head of Residential Research, Knight Frank says: “The Knight Frank Global House Price Index shows that while property prices in Europe and America appear to be suffering from the downturn in economic conditions; prices in Asia and elsewhere, notably Singapore and Hong Kong, are performing very well.