I live in a "non-bubble" area in the mid-south. We've typically experienced slow steady increases in property values of between 3 and 5% per year. Since the peak in 2006, I'd say my home value has dropped 15-20%. Houses are moving now in my area, especially those in the 200k range or under. Prices are not rising however. And I'm sure they won't rise as long as there is the inventory that is currently on the market.

Pfft. Try more like 35% - 40%. We tried to refinance, and we're so far underwater, it just is not going to happen.

I live in SoCal, of course.

Over 30% in the house we just put on the market.... and we didn't buy at the peak.

I live in No Cal in a bubble area. In '05 I was transferred out of state at work. Because the prices had gone so crazy, we were afraid that if we sold we would never be able to afford to move back (and this is where our lives were). So... we refinanced and took out a bunch of equity to buy a home in the new location renting out the home in the old location.

Since that point in '05, our home value has dropped 45%. We ended up moving back after two years, now we have both houses.

The home we bought in Hawaii, has held it's value pretty well. We can't really tell how much it has dropped, because it is harder to comp and we renovated it. If it has dropped in value, it would only be by 5-10%. We are renting it our now at a positive cash flow. However when we start paying principal next summer, we will be somewhat negative (depending on the interest rate at the time).

The strangest thing... my next door neighbor's house just sold for 15% MORE than what I bought my house for about 2 years ago. Their house is similar in size, finish, lot size, # of rooms, etc. so I think it's a very good comp.

Both our houses back up to a gorgeous treed creek/park/trail, which is rare in this price range for my area. I know the person who bought my neighbor's house had been looking for a house on my side of the street for quite some time. Most of my neighbors have lived there for 10+ years so these houses don't come up for sale very often.

So I would say no, not in my case.

I believe my house value has dropped 10% since its peak, I live in Southern California. Of course, since it is not on the market the true market value can't be known, neither can I be sure of its peak value.

Ya, that's exactly what I was thinking this morning - minimum of 20%. I'm not actually selling it yet but paying close attention because of possible relocation. I've been following real estate values where I live for quite a few years and I think my estimate is probably pretty accurate though I'll never really know for sure what it was worth at its peak. I'm in Mpls/St. Paul which had a pretty big run up and I just heard dropped more in one month (March I think) than anywhere else. Fortunately I bought 17 years ago so it's still worth much more than I paid.

No. I bought it for $205k in 2006. Comparable homes are listed at about $240k. Don't know what they sell for, though. Last year, I tried to protest the tax appraisal and the appraiser showed comparable homes sold for approx. $220k.
Dallas, TX

No, closer to 30% (Florida).

I bought a house in Vegas recently for 50% of what it sold for in 2007. So in Vegas/Socal/Florida/AZ our houses are much much more depressed than 20%.

No decline in my area!

Housing values went up 5% last year.

I think the decline here - Oakland hills starter, San Francisco Bay Area - is in the 35-40% range.

Not a big deal for us since we don't plan on selling until health forces us to, the house is already paid off, and we always maintain our house pretty well.

We did all the wrong things anyway. Bought at the top of the last bubble (1989), reduced the # of bedrooms from 3 to 2, over-improved everything (house was gutted and totally redesigned inside), put in a lavish cottage garden with double patios that looks gorgeous but would probably scare a non-gardener away (it's okay, I have an easy plan to simplify the frontyd when we go to sell).

Have no idea exactly how much it's worth nowadays. It's a great place to live, convenient, wonderful neighbors, and perfect for us at this stage of life.

Can't ask for more than that, from four walls and a roof.

I'm guessing 10%, based on asking and sales prices in my area right now (brownstone Brooklyn, well established neighborhood with good public schools).

We closed in October '07 so paid close to peak prices; we signed our contract and locked into great jumbo mortgage rates right before the first rumblings in the credit market in June/July '07. This is a long-term house for us, at 8-10 years minimum, so I'm not panicked.

We happened to have appraisals in both November '08 and April '09 on our house (two different refi's). The value, according to the appraisals, declined about 6% in that time, and I think that's about right for our area. I'd say it's about 10% off from its peak 12 months ago.

Our house is a newly remodeled 5 br 2 ba. It seems that houses that have not been remodeled are experiencing a bigger drop in value and are sitting on the market longer unless they are priced to sell. (In our area much of the housing stock was built in the 1940's and 50's)

We are in the San Francisco bay area on the Peninsula.

The financial expert I am not, but the 20% decline seems to be about right in Northern Fairfield County, CT. But some stats seem to be leaning towards the 30% number.

We bought our present home on 05 and it was under market value. The previous owners were heading for foreclosure - three mortgages and in default on payments. From the data/ information we were able to gather at the time, the house was anywhere from $150K to $200K below market value. Right now, we are back at the price we paid in 05 - appraisal for refi 3 months ago confirms this. So even though we may be down for resale value from 06, we're still ahead of the game for this house.

Our son and daughter-in-law are purchasing a house in the same town - about 2 weeks to closing. The price is about $100K below what it would have been 2 or 3 years ago. Their realtor found sales listings when the house was listed last year that confirms the drop. Based on these figures, the price drop is closer to 30%. But considering they are first time buyers, its good for them.

There still seems to be a high level of inventory in our area with more and more being bank owned. This leads me to believe that prices are not going to rise any time soon.

Enjoy the journey.
eal51 in western CT

I don't know and I won't care too much unless something unexpected happens and we have to sell! LOL I hope we can stay put until the vast and growing number of foreclosures gets sold, the economy picks up, and jobs are created.

I have read that nationwide houses are worth about what they sold for in 2002. We built and moved in in 2001, so I guess we're OK for now. (Of course,all RE is local. I'm 30 miles north of Chicago.)

It's *very* distressing to read about people with good credit and conventional mortgages going into foreclosure. That's about JOBS. An economist quoted in our newspaper said that 30% of Americans are un- or under-employed. I don't think that's especially new news. Were people taking equity out of their homes *just* to buy 'landfill' items, or have more people had trouble buying necessities AND HEALTH CARE for longer than we thought?

We just refied and our valuation was 39% of what an identical house in our neighborhood sold for in '05- so that would be a 60% decrease? Although the other house was on a smaller lot than ours. Thank goodness we bought on the leading edge of the upswing in '02- the valuation was still 40% more than we paid. This is in an area of SoCal.

We bought in the Tulsa area in 2006. We hope to sell this year at around 10-15% above what we paid three years ago. This is for an upper end starter home. More expensive homes are down in price, but I'm not sure how much. We are hoping to take advantage of the differences in the market.

We bought our house for $124K 7yrs ago. The homes in our neighborhood have been selling for between $200K - $240K recently. Unfortunately there have been several that have gone up for sale in the neighborhood this past month because of the Lockheed Martin layoffs(we live in Vestal, one town over from Owego where the presidential helicopters were supposed to be made.) So I expect a slight decline from the top number, but not too much.

We live in Southern California and our house value has gone down about 33% since we bought it three years ago. Not a problem for us since it's in a gorgeous, wild location in the hills with beautiful views and wildlife all around and we have no plans to leave because we know we'll never find any place that could be more wonderful. The house itself fits our needs perfectly and people have been very complimentary about our upgrades and how it's been decorated. My heart goes out to the many people who are desperate to keep any kind of roof over their heads. What has happened is so traumatic, and one wonders where and how it will end.

Its hard for me to know directly but here in Dayton I get the impression that the older lower priced neighborhoods in Dayton proper were the first to lose value. I did have one realtor tell me that Vandalia (an older mid-income established suburb north of Dayton) was fine till recently and now is stagnating. He has been having trouble trying to get people to price accordingly.
But I don't think that its been 20% across the board - it depends. Lots of differences just in this one medium size metro area.
Seems that the loss of value started with and is following lower priced houses in areas with poorer school systems and is moving its way up which is sort of what you'd expect to happen.
Chisue - I've been saying exactly that that for several years.

marys1000 -- I haven't been over here for awhile. Did you find a house to buy after selling your special dream house?

We have two homes.

Our Florida condo in the Ft. Lauderdale area has declined about 40% since we bought it in 2006. But we had bought a previous condo in 2002 which had tripled in value by the time we sold it to buy this one.

Our Maryland home has declined in the past couple of years about 20%, but we bought it in 1973 and have no plans on selling it, so the decline is only on paper and still way higher than we bought it for...like about ten times higher!

I'm in the greater Seattle Tacoma area. I bought my home in 1998 for $175K. At its peak, I think it would have gone for about $350K, but zillow has it listed at about $275K now. It doesn't matter to us as we'll be here for quite a long time, at least until we retire, which is 10+ years.

Now my mom and in-laws in N. CA, greater Bay area, have seen 45% drops in their particular county. What would have sold for $450K at the peak is now down to $225K, which is really all they're worth, in my opinion. What's scary is my MIL's next-door neighbor just bought their home for only $75K. Talk about bringing down values of your homes!

We bought our retirement home on the coast of Maine in September 2005. We refinanced in January and the house appraised at 10% more (due to the ocean views, I'm sure).

We bought a condo outside of Boston last October that was below value. We are having an appraisal done this week for a refi. It will be interesting to see the value of this place after these last, nasty 6 months.