A monthly home-price index that tracks 20 major U.S. metro areas dropped 12.7 percent in February compared to the same month last year.
Nineteen of 20 metro areas in the monthly S&P/Case-Shiller index experienced annual declines in February, with double-digit percentage declines in 10 metro areas.
The index gauges the value of homes over time, based on price pairs for repeat sales of the same homes.
Las Vegas had the steepest annual decline among the 20 areas in February, down 22.8 percent from its index level in February 2007. Miami was next with a 21.7 percent annual decline in February. Charlotte, N.C., experienced a 1.5 percent annual gain in the price index in February.
"There is no sign of a bottom in the numbers," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Standard & Poor’s Index Committee, in a statement.
Index values have declined for all of the 20 metro areas in every month since September 2007, and eight of the 20 metro areas and the composite 20-city index had its single largest monthly decline in February, Blitzer also reported.
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