SEATTLE, WA -U.S. homes lost $489 billion in home values during the first 11 months of 2009, significantly less than the $3.6 trillion lost during 2008, according to analysis of recent Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. Forty-eight of the 154 markets tracked by Zillow showed gains in home values during 2009, with the Boston metropolitan statistical area (MSA) showing the largest gain of $23.3 billion. The Providence, R.I. MSA was second on the list, with a gain of $12.4 billion.
The stabilization in home values led to easing rates of negative equity in the third quarter of 2009, with 21 percent of all single-family homeowners with mortgages underwater, compared to 23 percent in the second quarter.
"Home values stabilized significantly during the second half of 2009, with the total dollar value of U.S. homes increasing since June," said Dr. Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist. "Most housing markets across the country had a good summer, spurred largely by the government's tax credits for homebuyers combined with very low mortgage rates. Unfortunately, we believe that demand will come under downward pressure as mortgage rates creep back up after the first quarter and that housing supply will experience upward pressure as the volume of foreclosures continues to remain high. Both these factors will challenge the recent stabilization of home prices."
The biggest home value losses, in terms of total dollars lost in 2009, were in the large MSAs of Los Angeles (down $60.8 billion), Chicago (down $49.6 billion) and New York (down $49 billion). The large overall losses were due to a combination of the high number of homes in these metro areas, along with decreases in median home values.
Zillow.com is an online real estate marketplace where homeowners, buyers, sellers, real estate agents and mortgage professionals find and share vital information about homes and mortgages, for free. Launched in early 2006 with Zestimate® home values and data on millions of U.S. homes, Zillow has since added homes for sale, a directory of real estate and lending professionals, Zillow Advice and Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. One of the most-visited U.S. real estate Web sites, with more than eight million unique visitors per month, Zillow's goal is to help people become smarter about real estate in every stage of the home ownership process - home buying, selling, remodeling and financing. The company is headquartered in Seattle and has raised $87 million in funding.
Source: Zillow.com