Record Home Price Declines - 9%

As reported by CNNMoney.com - "Home prices in record 9% decline":

National home prices, driven lower by a flood of foreclosures, plummeted in the third quarter by a record 9% year-over-year, according to a report issued Tuesday.

The median price of a single-family home fell in four out of five states, the National Association of Realtors reported. The national median price was $200,500, down 2.9% from the second quarter of 2008.

The California housing market:

Three California markets recorded the steepest year-over-year declines in median prices: Riverside-San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles, where the median price plunged 39.4% to $227,200; Sacramento, down 36.8% to $212,000; and San Diego, down 36% to $377,300.

The high volume of sales in California and other bubble-bust states may indicate a healthy trend, according to Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist.

"We have seen cases of multiple bidders on properties in California," he said. "That suggests that future price declines may be minimal."

But while California saw significant declines, fully 79% of all metro areas recorded price drops for the quarter, according to Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research.

The Regional housing markets:

Regionally, single family home prices were the most stable in the South, where they fell just 3.7% to $174,200. They dropped 5.5% in the Midwest to $159,900 and 6.5% in the Northeast to $267,700. In the West, the median price fell 21.4% to $266,300.

If you've been following the housing market (if you haven't, have you been hiding in a cave?), these numbers are no surprise. Perhaps a bit on the bright side, report after recent report, it does look like there are a fair number of buyers cherry-picking discounted properties. After all, the prices have tanked. Home prices couldn't continue to go up forever and they can't continue to drop forever.

If you can time the bottom perfectly, we'd love to hear from you!