Home prices in metro Denver fell 4.8 percent for the 12 months ending in May. The decline was the third-smallest among the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index, after Charlotte, N.C., and Dallas.
Between March and May, prices actually rose 1 percent in metro Denver, which could point to more stable home prices here in the months ahead.
The relatively positive local news stands out amid the grim national picture painted in the report.
Nationwide, home prices tumbled by the steepest rate ever in May, dropping by 15.8 percent compared with a year ago, a record decline since the index’s inception in 2000. A 10-city index published by the same group plunged 16.9 percent, its biggest decline in its 21-year history.
No area in the Case-Shiller 20-city index saw price gains in May, the second-straight month that’s happened. The monthly indices have not recorded an overall home-price increase in any month since August 2006.
Home values have fallen 18.4 percent since the 20-city index’s peak in July 2006.
Nine metropolitan cities — Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C. — posted record declines in May. And the value of housing in Detroit is now lower than it was in 2000.
But a possible bright spot in an otherwise dismal report, seven metro areas — Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Dallas, Atlanta and Tampa, Fla. — showed smaller annual declines.
Las Vegas recorded the worst drop, with prices plunging 28.4 percent in the month. Miami came in a close second, with prices down 28.3 percent.
Charlotte, N.C., posted the smallest drop at 0.2 percent. Until April, the North Carolina city had been the last metro still showing price gains.
