Home Prices Drop More Slowly in First Quarter

Washington, DC, May 28, 2009--The average price of a U.S. home fell 7.1 percent in the first quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington said. That was slower than the price drop in the fourth quarter last year.

“Our latest data are consistent with growing evidence that housing market conditions may be stabilizing in some parts of the country,’ FHFA Director James B. Lockhart said in a press release.

The slowing decline of real estate prices is the first sign in more than three years of quarterly FHFA data that the housing market may be approaching a bottom.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan cited “seeds of a bottoming” in the housing market in a speech this month at a National Association of Realtors conference in Washington.

Nevada had the biggest drop in prices from a year earlier, at 31 percent, FHFA said. Florida tumbled 23 percent, California was down 22 percent, and Arizona dropped 20 percent.