Fall Home Prices Begin To Slow, But Not In DC Area

The fall in housing prices is beginning to slow nationally -- but not in D.C.

This morning’s release of the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller housing index showed prices in 20 major cities declined 2.2 percent in February, compared with 2.8 percent in January. The year-to-year decline in February was 18.6 percent, compared with 19 percent in January. It was the first time since October 2007 that the index did not show a record annual decline.

But in Washington, February prices dropped 2.3 percent, compared with a 2 percent fall in January. Washington was among a handful of the 20 cities -- which included Cleveland, Charlotte and New York -- that posted larger decrease in February than January.

Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research in Jupiter, Fla., said most other cities in the report entered the housing slump before Washington and will therefore emerge from it sooner. The other cities are “further along in the adjustment process” than D.C., he said.

--V. Dion Haynes