In the first three months of 2011 nationwide home values declined 3 percent quarter-over-quarter, the largest drop since the depths of the recession in 2008, and it’s anybody’s guess how far they’ll ultimately fall, according to a Zillow.com report cited by Marketplace. Zillow.com’s report indicated prices are down 29.5 percent since June 2006 and would continue to fall until at least 2012. Marketplace attributes the decline to the difficulty Americans are facing obtaining financing and the heftier down payments financial institutions now require so as not to get “burned” again. [more]

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Professors Karl Case and Robert Shiller, founders of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index appeared on Bloomberg TV (click the image to see the video) to discuss the results of the most recent index, which showed a 3.3 percent decline in housing prices in February. Case said the U.S. housing market has already experienced a so-called “double-dip,” as housing prices plummeted from their 2006 highs, then rebounded briefly due to the homebuyer’s tax credit, and now the market has returned to previous lows. Case cited an “incredible decline” in households — “we’re not building any new houses, and yet vacancy rates are still going up,” he said — as a major area for concern. Meanwhile, Shiller said the 8.8 percent unemployment rate and the difficulties associated with getting financing are plaguing the market. Comments

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New York City-area home prices remained relatively flat in January, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, released today. The report, which does not take condominium or co-op units into account, shows a 0.9 percent drop in home prices month-over-month (see full report below). Prices are down 3 percent from the same time period a year ago. This performance is in line with the overall momentum in the housing market nationwide. The index’s 20-city composite dropped 1 percent month-over-month and declined 3.1 percent from January 2010. David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s Index Committee, said that the data show a protracted real estate slump. “The housing market recession is not yet over, and none of the statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery,” Blitzer said. “At most, we have seen all statistics bounce along their troughs; at worst, the feared double-dip recession may be materializing.” TRD

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(Source: S&P/Case-Shiller)

The decline in New York-area home prices quickened in October, dropping 1.6 percent month-over-month, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices, released this morning. It was the second straight monthly decline for home prices in the region, where September brought a 0.5 percent month-over-month dip. It was trend echoed nationwide, as all 20 cities surveyed registered decreases in their October home prices, when compared to September. “The double-dip is almost here,” Index Committee Chairman David Blitzer said ominously in a statement accompanying the new data. “There is no good news in October’s report.” TRD [more]

A new report from valuation firm Clear Capital shows that home prices are double dipping, CNBC’s Diana Olick reports in the video above. Clear Capital put out an alert because they saw “staggering numbers,” Olick said, with home prices dropping nearly 6 percent, and wiping out the gains which were observed last spring from the homebuyer tax credit. More losses are predicted for the coming winter months, as well, possibly another 10 percent on top of what’s been observed so far. Meanwhile, Bank of America and GMAC have said they will start sales again, which will result in “more inventory coming in to a very difficult market,” Olick added.

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From the November issue: While prices and sales activity have picked up in New York in the last couple of months, a number of analysts are predicting a second round to the downturn here, with prices likely to fall. Estimates range from a drop of a few percentage points to up to 17 percent. Barry Ritholtz, the New York-based CEO and director of equity research at Fusion IQ, an online quantitative research firm, noted that “there’s still some downside to prices” in New York. “The good news is, the worst of the bloodbath is probably behind us in terms of falling prices,” he said. “The bad news is, unemployment continues to tick up and foreclosures continue to ramp up. I do not think New York is at a bottom quite yet.” Financial analysis firm Fiserv predicted last month that the New York City metro area will underperform the nation as a whole over the next two years, with prices falling another 17.4 percent by June 2011.