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Robert Selna, San Francisco Chronicle(02-23) 14:26 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Extremely modest home price declines nationally and locally in the fourth quarter might presage continued small price decreases or a flat market for one to five years to come, but there are more questions than answers about where residential real estate will go from here, according to experts analyzing recent data from an authoritative housing study.
In 20 cities and nine census divisions across the United States, prices fell just 1.1 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the Case-Shiller/S&P Home Price Index. And, while prices declined nationally by 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, that change was an improvement from previous year-over year comparisons.
The San Francisco metropolitan area fared better than most of the nation, seeing nearly a 5 percent home price increase in December compared to the same month in 2008. But local prices stayed essentially flat from October to December 2009, meaning that price momentum generated during 2009 began to stall in the year's later months.
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