International Investing

Bloomberg has the sad stats:

Home prices declined in 21 U.S. cities in January, led by Sacramento and Las Vegas, as banks sold foreclosed homes at bargain prices.
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San Diego was the third-worst U.S. market, with prices dropping 21 percent, and Los Angeles was fourth, with a 17 percent decline, Radar Logic said.

In Tampa, Florida, prices tumbled 16 percent. Phoenix had a 15 percent decline, Miami dropped 14 percent, and San Francisco had a 13 percent slip. Boston was down 9 percent and Washington declined 8.7 percent, the report said.

Charlotte, North Carolina, saw a 3.9 percent gain in values, and New York prices rose 2 percent, the only areas to have an increase in the study of 25 U.S. cities.

Milwaukee and Philadelphia saw price declines of less than one percent, changes so slight the study gave them a “neutral” ranking rather than count them as decreases.

The national vacancy rate, the share of empty houses for sale, increased to 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, matching 2007’s first-quarter rate that was the highest in records going back to 1956, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Jan. 29.