Area home-price slump worst among 20 areas

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Updated: April 18, 2012 5:36PM

Chicago housing prices took the biggest year-over-year drop among 20 metro areas surveyed in the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, with single-family home prices down 6.5 percent in October from year-ago levels.

Local housing prices declined only 2 percent on a monthly basis, from September to October, according to the index of local home prices released today.

All 20 metro areas nationwide saw prices decline, with Atlanta seeing the second-biggest yearly decline at 6.2 percent, the survey said. Overall, housing prices nationwide dropped 1.3 percent in October from September, and dipped 0.8 percent from a year earlier.

The supply of housing remains high, with homeowners and banks holding millions of properties that are waiting to be sold. Six metro areas — Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Miami, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Tampa, Fla. — are suffering from the lowest housing prices since the market hit bottom in 2006 and 2007, the report stated.

“There is no good news in October’s report,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s.