Denver Homes in metro Denver recorded a month-over-month gain of 0.6 percent, and the local index is up 4.1 percent for the year, double the 2 percent increase in the U.S. national index. In the first quarter of 2010, U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent compared with the fourth quarter.
Prices remain nearly 31 percent below their July 2006 peak. But they have risen nearly 3 percent from their April 2009 bottom. Tax credits and historically low mortgage rates have failed to lift home prices so far this year in most metropolitan areas. Prices fell 0.5 percent in March from February, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday.
The decline in prices is discouraging for American homeowners who have seen the value of their largest asset deteriorate sharply over the past three years. For those struggling to pay their mortgages, falling home prices make it harder to refinance into an affordable home loan. Mortgage delinquencies were at a record high in the first quarter.
Posted by: Jeffery McClintock
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