The Top 10 States for Home Price Declines

First American CoreLogic's home price report for January 2009 includes a ranking of the top states for year-over-year home price declines. (This ranking is based on the 12-month period through January 2009)

From the press release:

Based on full-month January 2009 home price data from the LoanPerformance HPI, First American CoreLogic reports:

National resale housing prices fell 11.6 percent in January from a year ago. Home prices have declined by at least 10 percent on a year-over-year basis for 11 consecutive months and February preview data indicates the trend will continue.

The number of metropolitan markets experiencing price declines was, by far, the highest level tracked by the LoanPerformance HPI. As of January 2009, more than 700, or nearly three-quarters, of all metropolitan markets were experiencing home price depreciation, up from 254 markets experiencing depreciation in December 2007 and 394 in June 2008.

The composition of the top 5 markets began to shift in January as Nevada (-26.9%) became the top ranked state for price depreciation, displacing California (-26.7%), which had led the nation in price depreciation since May 2007. Arizona (-21.3%) remained the third ranked state in terms of price depreciation, but Rhode Island (-19.7%) edged out Florida (-19.5%) and now ranks 4th in the nation in terms of price declines.

Since U.S. home prices peaked in July 2006, they have declined 21.2 percent on a cumulative basis and are currently back to the lowest price level since March 2004.