Home-price index falls 15.9% in June

A monthly price index for 20 U.S. metro areas dropped 15.9 percent year-over-year in June, with the sharpest declines in the Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix areas.

A separate quarterly index covering a broader set of U.S. markets fell 15.4 percent in the second quarter compared to the same quarter last year, but rose 0.6 percent compared to first-quarter 2008. 

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Composite-20 index, which measures price changes for repeat sales of the same homes over time in 20 metro areas, recorded a 28.6 percent drop in Las Vegas in June compared to the same month last year, and all 20 metro areas tracked in the monthly index had year-over-year index declines.

Miami had the second-highest price decline at 28.3 percent, followed by Phoenix, down 27.9 percent. At the national level, the housing market peaked in June 2006 and July 2006, according to the report, and has fallen about 18.8 percent since among the 20 metro areas tracked.

Charlotte had the slightest year-over-year index drop in June, down 1 percent; Dallas had a 3.2 percent decline; and the index slid 4.7 percent in Denver, according to the report.

Compared to May, nine cities had slight index gains in June -- the largest gain, at 1.5 percent, was in Denver. And the largest monthly decline was in Phoenix, down 2.6 percent.

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