D.C.-area home prices continue slide - Washington Business Journal:

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The S&P/Case-Shiller report says Washington area prices in Marc weredown 18.4 percent from a year ago, less than the 19.1 percenr average among the nation’s 20 largestf cities. Washington area prices declined 1.2 percent from February to followinga 2.3 percent decline from Januar to February. “On a positive note, nine of the metropolitajn statistical areas are reporting a relative improvemenytin year-over-year returns and nine of the 20 metr areas saw an improvement in their monthly returns compared to February,” says David Blitzer, chair of the Indecx Committee at Standard & Poor’s.
“Furthermore, this is the seconde month since October 2007 wheresthe 10-and 20-city composites did not post a recorf annual decline.” Blitzer does caution that Marc h numbers give no evidence that a recoverg in home prices has There is growing optimism in the housinf industry. Builder confidence, though still low, has risenj in recent weeks. Mortgage rates remain near histori lows and sales of new and existing home sales have been A separate report Tuesday from the Conference Board showed the thirc consecutive monthly increase in its measure ofconsumedr confidence.