Overall home price is down 15.5%

Ted S. Warren, Associated Press

Housing prices drop

By JIM BUCHTA, Star Tribune

Last update: June 25, 2008 - 10:07 AM

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April home prices in the Twin Cities metropolitan area fell close to the national average -- 15.5 percent, according to the Standard & Poor's/ Case-Shiller report -- a figure far higher than the monthly declines reported by local Realtor groups.

Reports by the four metro-area Realtor associations showed that the median Twin Cities-area sale price fell 8 percent in April and 9.9 percent in May, compared with the same months last year.

The Realtor reports are based on all transactions that have closed during that period, including single-family houses, duplexes, condominiums and townhouses. The Case-Shiller report is based on repeat transactions of single-family houses only, or those houses that have sold and have resold. That includes those with subprime and nonconforming mortgages.

Data from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight also were released Tuesday showing that home prices across the country fell 4.6 percent in April compared with April 2007. That report is based on a survey of refinancings and sales of houses with conventional mortgages purchased or securitized by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. It doesn't include jumbo loans -- mortgages of more than $417,000 for a single-family home.

Home values across the country have been affected by foreclosures and short sales, which have put intense downward pressure on sale prices of nearby properties.

But when those distressed properties are removed, the Realtors say, the Twin Cities median price fell 3.9 percent in the past year, instead of an overall 10.4 percent decline.

Jim Buchta • 612-673-7376