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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – U.S. residential house prices dropped by 1.2 percent in October compared with September, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index.

In addition, S&P/Case-Shiller issued a negative outlook for housing prices.

“There was weakness in the monthly statistics, as 19 of the cities posted price declines in October over September,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “Nationally, home prices are still below where they were a year ago.”

It was the sixth consecutive month of decline. Prices were down by 3.4 percent compared to October 2010.

The only exception to price drops was in Phoenix where prices were actually up by 0.3 percent. However, the other 19 cities saw declines, with the Midwest markets and the Atlanta metro area losing the most value. There was some good news in the report for Detroit when viewed on an annual basis.

Housing values in the Atlanta metro area plunged by 5 percent in October after diving 5.9 percent in September.

“Atlanta and the Midwest are regions that really stand out in terms of recent relative weakness. Atlanta was down 5.0 percent over the month, after having fallen by 5.9 percent in September. It also has the weakest annual return, down 11.7 percent. Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Minneapolis all posted monthly declines of 1.0 percent or more in October. These markets were some of the strongest during the spring/summer buying season,” Blitzer said. “However, Detroit is the healthiest when viewed on an annual basis. It is up 2.5 percent versus October 2010. Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas are four markets where average prices are below their January 2000 levels; and Atlanta and Las Vegas posted new lows in October.”

Some analysts were disappointed because several other reports had indicated that housing prices might be stabilizing. That included increases in existing home sales, home building starts and record-low interest rates.

However, much of the increase in existing home sales came from lower-priced short sales or foreclosures.

Although house prices have dropped 33 percent in value since the housing bubble burst, analysts point out that demand is still weak and that housing prices have still not fully dropped from the inflated bubble-high values that caused the housing market to crash.

In addition, there are fewer buyers. Only 64 percent of working age Americans have jobs and nearly 8 million of those are involuntarily working part-time. Before the recession, 89 percent of working age Americans had a job.

Other factors prevent people from buying homes. Among them is inadequate income, damaged credit that means they cannot qualify for a mortgage, or the inability to sell an existing home.

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