Zillow: Home Value Drop Biggest in 12 Years

Home values fell 1.6% in the first quarter, dropping to a level 7.7% below that of a year earlier and posting "the most significant year-over-year decline in the past 12 years," according to Zillow.com, an online real estate community based in Seattle. Zillow's quarterly national home value report found that median home values stood at a Zindex level of $213,000, the lowest since the second quarter of 2005. "Home values in most markets continued to slide in the first quarter, falling back to levels we saw three to four years ago, which has left more homeowners than ever 'underwater' on their mortgages," said Stan Humphries, Zillow's vice president of data and analytics. ".... The magnitude of annualized declines has been increasing during each of the last five quarters, which is a strong indication that home values still have further to fall, so we expect it's going to get worse before it gets better." Zillow can be found online at http://www.zillow.com.