House prices still falling

04.29.09
By Nicholas Storie

After so many months of declining house prices, the question on many Americans' minds may be: when will the market hit bottom?

Some experts see signs of a potential turnaround in the latest S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index. The data reveals that February saw a slowdown in the rate of price decline for the first time in 16 months.

The index decreased by 18.6 percent compared with the same month in 2008, which is slightly lower than the 19 percent drop recorded between January 2008 and 2009. Month-on-month, the index was down 2.2 percent.

While existing homeowners may be hoping for a reprieve to the seemingly endless fall in the value of their home, experts warn people against getting too excited by this small change.

"It's still a weak market," real estate analyst Mike Larson of Weiss Research told CNN Money. "It's just a moderation in the monthly declines and it fits in with the pattern we're seeing of things getting less bad."

In other words, if you are in the market for a new home, today's low prices are not going anywhere and are likely to fall even further. Prospective buyers with good credit scores are in the best position to take advantage of the current low interest rates on home loans.

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Americans are wondering when house prices will stop falling