Zillow.com, a home and real estate marketplace, said on Thursday that U.S. homes lost more than $681 billion in value in 2011. That figure represents a 35 percent decrease from the $1.1 trillion lost in 2010.
Zillow.com, a home and real estate marketplace, said on Thursday that U.S. homes lost more than $681 billion in value in 2011. That figure represents a 35 percent decrease from the $1.1 trillion lost in 2010.
Most of the losses came in the first half of 2011, from January to June, when homes lost $454 billion. Another $227 billion was lost during the second half.
Only nine out of 128 markets showed gains in home values during 2011, Zillow said, with the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area (MSA) showing the largest gain at $3.5 billion. Pittsburgh was second on the list, with a gain of $2.7 billion.
"While homeowners suffered through another year of steep losses, the good news is that homes are losing value at a substantially slower pace as the market works its way towards the bottom," said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries. "Compared to last year when we saw sharp declines following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credits, this year we saw some organic improvement in home values, in terms of a slowed depreciation rate which resulted in a smaller total value loss for the year."
"Unfortunately, when we look ahead to next year, the unabsorbed pool of housing supply, dragging levels of consumer confidence, high unemployment and negative equity will continue to put downward pressure on the housing market, pushing our expectation for a potential recovery into late 2012 or early 2013," Humphries said.
