Home values fall 14.5 percent

Home values in South Florida fell 14.5 percent in January to a median of $138,600,
according to the home value index of Seattle-based Zillow.com. Of all the
homes sold in January, 46.3 percent went for a loss, which was actually a
smaller amount than in the year before, when 49.2 percent of homes sold. “We continue to believe that these high depreciation rates
are death throes of the 55-month-long housing recession visited upon us
at this time because of the full expiration of the federal homebuyer
tax credits,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, in a blog
post. “Further, we believe we’ll start to see some stabilization and
then reduction in the depreciation rates in the spring numbers ahead of
an eventual bottom nationally this year.” [SFBJ]

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