Dallas-area home prices fall nearly 5%

Dallas-area home prices started the new year with an almost 5 percent drop in home prices.

But the local decline was the lowest among 20 cities included in the January Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

Nationwide home prices were down by a record 19 percent.

And 14 of the 20 cities included in the benchmark monthly survey had double digit price declines from a year earlier..

“Home prices, which peaked in mid-2006, continued their decline in 2009,” S&P’s David M. Blitzer said in the Tuesday report. “There are very few bright spots that one can see in the data.

“Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path.”

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