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American property values fall by 10%

Catherine Deshayes

In the last few months, values of homes in the USA have seen their largest decline, leaving almost one-third of homeowners who bought in the past five years facing negative equity.

U.S. home values in the second quarter of this year posted the largest year-over-year decline in the past 12 years, dropping 9.9% from the year-ago quarter and 1.7% from the first part of this year. 

The median U.S. home value has not been this low since the fourth quarter of 2004, leaving nearly one-third of homeowners who purchased since 2003 with negative equity, meaning they owe more than their home is currently worth.

Zillow's Home Value Index, which monitors 165 metropolitan statistical areas, (MSAs) the largest sample of markets by any housing report, has seen the majority of MSAs losing value in the past few months.

Some of the hardest hit markets have seen more than one-third of their home's value lost in the past year. Homes in California were amongst the worst affected.

Based on the Quarter Two Real Estate Market Reports, 77% of homes actually declined in value over the past year, a slight increase from the 75% that declined year-over-year in the first quarter.

Browse a wide range of American properties at www.themovechannel.com/map/North_America/