Mary Ellen Podmolik
Chicago Tribune
May 31, 2011
National home prices hit a new low in March, giving credence to long-simmering worries about a double dip in the housing market.
The widely-watched S&P/Case-Shiller home price index showed that both nationally and in the Chicago area, home prices fell below their previous lows, causing the report’s authors to declare an official double dip in home prices. In the U.S., home prices plummeted to their mid-2002 levels. In the Chicago area, prices in March were at levels not seen since April 2001.
The Chicago area has been one of the country’s weak spots for months, and local home prices have been falling since November 2010. In March, according to the index, home prices slipped 2.4 percent from February, and were down 7.6 percent on an annualized basis.
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