Zillow report raises question: Have We Hit Bottom?

Looks like we might be almost there. Start looking now if you want to buy or trade up. Remember, all real estate is local so your preferred area or neighborhood could be VERY different.

clipped from columbus.bizjournals.com Housing values in Columbus and most U.S. metropolitan areas continued their decline into the first quarter, but a new report from researcher Zillow.com points to encouraging signs in some of the most battered markets. Zillow on Monday reported that its quarterly home value index fell 3.8 percent from a year earlier to a median $183,700. Of the 135 metro markets that the Seattle company tracks, 106 registered declines. Zillow’s index is a median estimate for a single-family residence, condominium or cooperative in an area on a given day in the quarter The Columbus area, according to Zillow data, saw a slightly steeper slide in valuation in the first three months of the year, its median home value tumbling 5.1 percent to $108,700.

Despite the continued decline nationally in home values, Zillow reported those drops might be nearing a bottom in several large California metros, including the Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco areas. But some worry the long-term improvement trends may be threatened by the federal home buyer tax credit program stealing demand from the traditional summer housing-buying market instead of creating new demand.

That shift is likely to help put the bottom of the housing value decline in the fourth quarter of this year, rather than the second quarter as originally projected, Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said in a release. The tax credit program is scheduled to end in June.

“When we do get there, we expect the high rates of negative equity and foreclosures to keep national home value appreciation near zero for some time, possibly as long as five years,” Humphries said.