October Home Prices Fall By Record 6.7 %

NEW YORK (AP) _ U.S. home prices fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, declining a record 6.7 % compared with a year ago, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index.

Wednesday, December 26th 2007, 8:13 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ U.S. home prices fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, declining a record 6.7 % compared with a year ago, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index.

``No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim,'' said Robert Shiller, who helped create the index, in a statement Wednesday.

The previous record decline was a drop of 6.3 %, recorded in April 1991.

Home prices fell 1.4 % in October compared with the previous month.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index tracks prices of existing single-family homes in 10 metropolitan areas compared with a year earlier. A broader index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 6.1 %. Among the 20 metropolitan areas used in the broader index, 11 posted record monthly declines.

Miami posted the largest loss among the 20 markets reviewed. Home prices in the Miami metropolitan area declined 12.4 % in October compared with the same month last year.

Only three areas _ Charlotte, N.C., Portland, Ore. and Seattle _ posted year-over-year home price appreciation in October, with Charlotte posting the largest gains at 4.3 %.