With one at a record low and another at a 10-year low, two lagging home price indicators this week clearly reveal worsening conditions on the home price front.

On Tuesday, the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 major metropolitan areas for the second quarter came in down 3.2 percent, compared to a year ago.

The new index is a record low of 183.89 -- the lowest point ever on the index since its inception back in January 1987.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's Home Price Index, also for the second quarter, revealed home prices nationwide rose only an average 3.2 percent nationwide, compared to the same quarter a year ago.

The increase was the lowest annual price change since the 1996-1997 period.

The indexes foreshadow what some economists believe will be the first national home price decline since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index tracks prices of single-family homes in 20 metropolitan areas.

OFHEO's index tracks single-family home prices in more than 381 metropolitan areas and offers data on the metro, state and Census area levels.

Case-Shiller's index reveals major housing markets are taking the brunt of home price declines.

The Case-Shiller index covering 20 top metro areas for the month of June fell 3.5 percent, and the 10-city index dropped 4.1 percent, both year-over-year.

Among the 20 metros, 15 of them or 75 percent revealed year-over-year home price declines with only Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Dallas, TX; Portland, OR; and Seattle, WA avoiding home price declines.

"On a regional level, 17 of the 20 metro areas are showing declines in their annual growth rate from what was reported in May," says Robert J. Shiller, Chief Economist at MacroMarkets LLC.

The big home price loser was Detroit where home prices were down 11 percent from a year ago. The big winner was Seattle where prices were up 7.9 percent, according to Cash-Shiller.

OFHEO's report reveals statewide year-over-year home price declines ranging from a 0.97 drop in Rhode Island to a 1.45 percent decline in Nevada, with California, Massachusetts and Michigan also revealing declines within that range.

"Significant price declines appear localized in areas with weak economies or where price increases were particularly dramatic during the housing boom," said OFHEO director James B. Lockhart.

Utah retained the title as top home price appreciation state with a 15.28 percent increase in prices during the past year ending in the second quarter, according of OFHEO.

Approximately 20 percent, or 61 of OFHEO's 287 "ranked" cities experienced home price downturns with Merced, CA suffering a 8.65 percent home price decline, the nation's largest.

Eighteen of the 20 cities having the lowest four-quarter appreciation rates were in Florida and California. Those cities experienced price declines of between 4.2 and 8.65 percent.

Among ranked cities, Wenatchee, WA had the greatest level of home price appreciation, 23.54 percent.

For 94 "unranked" cities, those with smaller numbers of home sales, only six revealed home price declines with the 5.49 percent year-to-year home price decline in the Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL area the largest.

Odessa, TX, yielded the greatest level of home price appreciation among smaller housing markets, 19.40 percent

"The pullback in the U.S. residential real estate market is showing no signs of slowing down," Shiller said.

Published: August 31, 2007

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.