The Zillow Real Estate Market report covering the first three months of the year shows that the market experienced its sharpest quarterly decline since 2008. Values were down 3% and have now fallen 29.5% since the peak of the market in June 2006. There was also an increase in negative equity which reached a new high with 28.4% of all single family homes with mortgages underwater, up from 27% in the fourth quarter of 2010, due to accelerating home value declines.
The latest analysis means that the bottom in terms of property prices is now unlikely this year and Zillow has revised its forecast and now predicts a bottom in 2012 at the earliest. The report also shows a rise in foreclosures which had fallen towards the end of 2010. But in March one out of every 1,000 homes in the country was lost to foreclosure.
from www.zillow.com