Chicago leads nation in home price drops

Home prices continued their slide across the nation during this year's third quarter, and buyers moving to Chicago may have noticed cheaper properties when shopping for new homes in that city.

The latest Case-Shiller home price index from Standard & Poor's reported that national home prices were down 2 percent during this year's third quarter. That was a stark change from the previous quarter, when prices rose 4.7 percent, and also revealed home values 1.5 percent below levels from the third quarter of 2009.

The city of Chicago posted the nation's largest decline, with home prices in that city down 5.6 percent from a year ago. Values there also dropped 1.5 percent from August to September, making Chicago one of 18 of the report's 20 metropolitan statistical areas to experience month-to-month price declines.

"This is worse than August when 15 were down month-to-month," said David Blitzer, the chairman of the S&P's index committee. "The only two which weren't down in September were Las Vegas, which managed to stay a touch above the low set in July, and Washington, D.C."

Low sales over the past year may have led to lower prices, as more sellers have had to cut their prices in order to appeal to moving buyers. Trulia.com data shows that November home sales in Chicago were down 25.5 percent compared to a year earlier.
 

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