Seattle home prices rose 0.5% in 2007

With a full year's numbers now in, S&P/Case Shiller is reporting that Seattle's single-family homes appreciated a meager 0.5 percent in 2007 — and still that made it one of the standout markets in an otherwise dismal year.

Taken together, existing homes in 20 of the country's major markets lost 9 percent of their value last year, the largest decline in the 20-year history of the national price index.

The only other cities to report annual appreciation were Charlotte, N.C., at 2.3 percent, and Portland, at 1.2 percent.

Miami, which saw values decline 17.5 percent, was the largest loser, followed by Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego, where values dropped 15 percent.

"We've reached a somber year-end for the housing market in 2007," said Robert Shiller a Yale University professor and the chief economist at MacroMarkets. "Home prices across the nation and in most metro areas are significantly lower than where they were a year ago."

More recently Seattle price changes have gone negative, the index showed, with prices slipping 1.2 percent from November to December. Still, that bests the 20-city average decline of 2.1 percent.

Elizabeth Rhodes: erhodes@seattletimes.com