AOL NEWS: If you’re looking to score a great deal on that cute little home, it turns out you may want to wait a little longer to buy — like until next year: U.S. home values dropped 3% in the first quarter, their sharpest quarter-over-quarter decline since the dark days of late 2008, according to the Zillow Home Value Index report released Monday.
Based on those results, as well as increases in foreclosures and underwater mortgages, Zillow revised its forecast for when U.S. home values will bottom out. The real estate tracking service now expects home values won’t begin to recover until 2012 — at the earliest — instead of later this year.
“Home value declines are currently equal to those we experienced during the darkest days of the housing recession. With accelerating declines during the first quarter, it is unreasonable to expect home values to return to stability by the end of 2011,” said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries in a statement. “We did expect substantial payback from the homebuyer tax credits, which buoyed the housing market last year, but underlying demand post-tax credit, as well as rising foreclosures and high negative equity rates, make it almost certain that we won’t see a bottom in home values until 2012 or later.”… (more)
