In the first half of the aughts (2000-2005), home prices rose dramatically in the U.S., and few places soared higher in property values than in the Tampa Bay area.  Although some real estate representatives boasted at the time that home values would only continue to rise, we all know that in fact they had peaked by 2005-2006.  The question is, how many years will it take for those values to begin to approximate those dizzying heights?

Not very soon, according to David M Blitzer, the chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's, who said yesterday that "January brings us weakening home prices with no real hope in sight for the near future."

And Tampa was one of eleven cities that hit a new low price drops in January, along with Miami and one its Southeastern competitors, Charlotte.

One obvious factor for the continuing sluggishness in home prices is the fact there's just too much housing out there, thanks to the foreclosure crises.  As the New York Times reports:

Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas are now below their average prices of 11 years ago, and Phoenix is nearly there. Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas and Minneapolis are not doing much better. After adjusting for inflation, the struggles in these cities are even more pronounced.

Last night on the PBS NewsHour, Yale University economics professor Robert Shiller of the S&P-Case-Shiller home price index spoke to Ray Suarez about the fact that we're now seeing a second housing slump over the past couple of years.

Youtube video

Meanwhile, Neil Barofsky , the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) from its creation in 2008 until today, writes about a very interesting aspect of the legislation that could have aided in the housing crises.  

This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2011.