Falling in the USA

The rate of property price falls in some states in the USA is accelerating, according to the latest national data to be published...

And it is not the states that were worst hit in 2008 that are suffering now. Indeed Nevada and California are experiencing a slowdown in devaluation although they are still the top ranked states in terms of annual price falls.

Property prices continue to fall across much of the nation with Nevada seeing an annual price drop of 25.9 per cent and California down by 24.9per cent. In third place is Rhode Island with a 21.2 per cent depreciation rate, the figures from First American CoreLogic show.

But California's decline is the smallest since March 2008 and Nevada's drop is the smallest in six months. Florida and Arizona are also seeing consistent acceleration in price declines, the figures show.

But it is the states that were regarded as having stable property markets that are now seeing an acceleration in price declines with 33 showing a growth in depreciation and 14 experiencing double digit declines - twice as many as a year ago.

'The problems are no longer confined to a handful of Sand States,' said Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic in reference to Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada.

'Property owners in many parts of the country are coming under stress from a loss in equity, rising delinquencies and foreclosures, and economic uncertainty,' he added.

This distress is particularly pronounced in more expensive locations where the median value of all properties is over £628,000. 'In these neighborhoods mortgage delinquency performance is worsening at a faster pace than the overall national delinquency rate, although the rate of delinquencies in these high-end neighborhoods is still much lower than the US overall,' Fleming explained.

Source: www.propertywire.com