WASHINGTON — Home prices are weakening around the country, even in metro areas that were showing strength earlier in the year.
The Standard & Poor’s/ Case-Shiller 20-city home- price index released Tuesday fell 0.2 percent in August from July. Fifteen cities, including Denver, showed monthly price declines.
The biggest drop came in Phoenix, where prices fell 1.3 percent from a month earlier. Prices in three California cities that had been rebounding — San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles — fell by less than 1 percent.
Denver prices fell 0.1 percent in August compared with July. They dropped 1.2 percent compared with August a year ago.
Detroit, Chicago, Washington, New York and Las Vegas were the only cities to show monthly price increases. The 20-city index has risen 6.7 percent from its April 2009 bottom. But it remains nearly 28 percent below its July 2006 peak.
Home prices rose in many markets from April through July. But those increases were mostly fueled by government tax credits, which have expired. Now that the peak buying season is over, a record number of foreclosures, job concerns and weak demand from buyers are pushing prices down.
Most experts expect roughly 5 million homes to be sold this year. That would be in line with last year’s total and just above sales for 2008, the worst since 1997.
Denver Post staff writer Margaret Jackson contributed to this report.
