NEW YORK – U.S. home prices fell 1.4 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago, the first time since 1991 that prices have shown a quarterly decline, according to a housing index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s.

“We still don’t see anything that looks like a clear bottom,” S&P index committee chairman David Blitzer said. “We’re still headed down.”

The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index showed the 1.4 percent drop in the price for sales of existing single-family homes in metropolitan markets in nine U.S. census divisions.

Further evidence of a Denver-area housing market slump came in two reports released on Tuesday.The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index showed Denver-area prices fell 2 percent in the first quarter, compared with 1.4 percent for the top 20 metropolitan areas.

A separate report shows a 35.4 percent year-over-year decline in Denver metro new home sales in April.

Nationally, the last time there was an overall drop in the home-price index was the third quarter of 1991.

However, Denver-area resale homes didn’t fall as much as previously hot markets, such as Boston, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, D.C., according to first-quarter data in the index.

Most of us have at least one mortgage these days, but there is so much
confusion over the interest.  It seems like by the time you’ve paid off
your mortgage the interest costs more than your home.  I would love to
know how the interest is calculated and how it can end up being way
more than the home.  Also what is the difference between your APR and your
interest rate.  Please help.
Jennifer in NC

Like so many people, Jennifer was surprised when she got past the ‘easy
monthly payment’ and started learning about mortgages. Let’s see if we
can’t help her to understand the basics of interest and APR (annual
percentage rate).