Twin Cities See Steep Decline In Home Prices

ST. PAUL (AP) - New figures show the Twin Cities saw the biggest drop in home prices among 20 major cities across the country in February.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows home prices in Minneapolis-St. Paul fell 3.1 percent in February compared with January.

The seasonally-adjusted numbers for February show a smaller dropoff of 1.3 percent.

The 20-city index shows home prices declined in 19 metro areas from January to February. Detroit was the only city in the index that posted a gain in February.

David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indexes, says he doesn't make too much of the Twin Cities' poor performance in February.

Blitzer says the Twin Cities market is suffering from the same conditions as other cities. He says tight credit and foreclosures continue to hurt the housing market nationwide.

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