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L.A., O.C. home prices decline sharply

(Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

U.S. home prices continued to fall at a record pace, and price declines in Los Angeles and Orange counties outpaced other major metropolitan areas in September, according to a national index released Tuesday.

Local prices dropped 7% from a year earlier, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller composite index. The index showed that home prices fell an average of 4.9% in 20 metro areas nationwide.

The index found that median home prices nationwide fell 4.5% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier. That eclipsed the second quarter’s record 3.2% decline, which had been the sharpest drop since the index began in 1987.

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San Diego recorded the third-worst decline, with a 9.6% drop from the previous year. The only bigger slumps were in the Florida cities of Tampa (11.1%) and Miami (10%).

Detroit mirrored San Diego, recording a 9.6% drop.

The Case-Shiller index measures the value of single-family homes based on their sales histories, excluding condominium units and new properties.

Instead of stating average home prices, the index uses a score measuring percentage changes. The index baseline of 100 reflects home prices in January 2000.

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The Los Angeles measurement peaked in September 2006 at 273.9, which meant the typical home in the area would be priced 174% above its January 2000 price.

The Case-Shiller numbers accompanied other grim assessments of the housing market. A U.S. Conference of Mayors report predicted a 16% decline for California home prices in 2008 and a nationwide decline of 7%.

The mayors’ report cites foreclosures and failed sub-prime mortgages as driving a housing recession that will drag home values down $1.2 trillion nationwide in 2008.

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In California, falling home values will result in a decline of nearly $3 billion in property tax revenue in 2008, the report said.

Also on Tuesday, the chief executive of one of the nation’s largest home builders said new-home sales would continue to deteriorate as foreclosed houses flooded the market, dragging down prices.

D.R. Horton Inc. CEO Donald Tomnitz, speaking at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference in Las Vegas, said, “ ’08 is going to be worse than ’07 for us and for the industry in general.”

peter.hong@latimes.com

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