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Home values continue slide

By Howard Fischer

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/knau/local-knau-713927.mp3

Phoenix, AZ – If you think your house is worth less now than it was last year, you're right. Arizona Public Radio's Howard Fischer explains.

New figures from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise
Oversight show the value of the average Arizona home has
plummeted by 5 percent in the last year. That means a house
which was worth $200,000 in the first quarter of 2007 is now
valued at just $189,000. That's the fourth biggest drop in the
nation and the largest for Arizona since the federal agency has
been reporting numbers beginning in 1985. And it compares with a
drop of less than one-tenth of one percent nationwide.

But as bad
as things are in Arizona, they're worse in three other
high-growth states. Florida homes lost more than 8 percent of
their value year over year. And the decline exceeded 10 percent
in California and Nevada.

The size of the slide is not universal
across the state. Home values in Mohave County are down more than
9 percent, with close to a 7 percent drop in the Phoenix area.
But Yuma area prices are down about 5 percent, with a 3.7
percent decline in Yavapai County and a drop of less than 2
percent in the Flagstaff area.

For Arizona Public Radio, this is
Howard Fischer.