Home Prices Declined to New Lows in 2011 HOME prices in the United States, which seemed to begin to recover in 2009, fell to new lows in 2011, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of prices. Seattle and Atlanta were among the metropolitan areas where prices have fallen the most since the national market seemed to hit bottom. "Prices peaked in Seattle after the rest of the United States, so Seattle is a little bit behind in the correction that will bring prices back in line with income levels," said David L. Stiff, chief economist of Fiserv, which collects the data and calculates the Case-Shiller indexes. Foreclosures are rising there as they are receding in some areas where problems appeared earlier. As seen in the accompanying charts, five of the 20 markets tracked by the Case-Shiller indexes peaked in 2007. Four of them - Seattle; Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; and Portland, Ore. - are down at least 7 percent from the spring of 2009. Only Dallas has held up relatively well. Dallas was also a special case during the housing boom; prices there rose more slowly than in any other market except Detroit. One reason for both its slow ascent and subsequent slower fall may be that, because of state laws, refinancing mortgages is harder in Texas. That meant there was less money available to bid up prices in good times, and fewer homes worth less than was owed when the bad times arrived. Detroit home prices have also done relatively well in recent months. In 2011, prices there rose a small amount, making it the only market to show a gain for the year. Some of the markets where speculation was heaviest seem to be recovering. Prices in all three California markets are still higher than they were in the spring of 2009, and prices in Phoenix fell less in 2011 than they did in most markets. But Las Vegas, perhaps the most speculative market during the boom, is still suffering. Prices there have fallen nearly 20 percent since the spring of 2009, more than in any other market. It is possible that the home price situation is not as bleak as portrayed by the Case-Shiller indexes. A major challenge for any home price index is assuring comparability. Case-Shiller does that by comparing prices of homes with the price of the same home when it was previously sold. The risk is that such comparisons may overlook changes to the home between transactions. During the boom, that meant the index might overstate gains because a home rose in value in part because of the addition of a new bedroom or swimming pool. Now, it may overstate losses because a disproportionate portion of sales in some markets are foreclosures, which are less likely to have been well maintained and in some cases may have been abandoned and vandalized before a new sale takes place. Mr. Stiff said Fiserv tried to minimize that problem by reducing the impact on the index of home sales that appear to show unusually large increases or decreases. Another national index, maintained by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, showed a smaller decline in prices in 2011, and says prices hit bottom last February, before rising a little late in the year. That index is based on data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are regulated by the agency.