Minneapolis, basket case

When it comes to home values, Minneapolis has apparently surpassed even Detroit as the nation’s economic basket case.

The Minneapolis area had the worst one-month drop in the resale price of homes (seasonally unadjusted) from December to January of 20 major metropolitan areas. The Case Shiller Index, released this morning, measures the resale values of homes. It showed Minneapolis’ home values dropped 3.4% in a month. It’s the biggest one-month drop in the Twin Cities values since July of 2009, in the thick of the economic meltdown. It’s the sixth straight month of declines.

Here’s how the region stacks up:

City
Change from January
Minneapolis
-3.4%
Seattle
-2.4%
San Francisco
-1.9%
Chicago
-1.8%
Portland
-1.8%
Detroit
-1.7%
Phoenix
-1.5%
Miami
-1.3%
San Diego
-1.2%
Denver
-1.1%
Charlotte
-1.1%
Tampa
-1.0%
New York
-0.9%
Cleveland
-0.8%
Los Angeles
-0.6%
Dallas
-0.5%
Atlanta
-0.4%
Boston
-0.3%
Las Vegas
-0.3%
Washington
0.1%

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Minneapolis drop was 1.5%. That was also the worst in the nation.

The picture brightens somewhat when considering the change over the last year. In that category, Minneapolis is not the worst; it is merely one of the worst areas in the country.

City 
One-year change
Phoenix
-9.1%
Detroit
-8.1%
Portland
-7.8%
Minneapolis
-7.6%
Chicago
-7.5%
Tampa
-7.0%
Atlanta
-7.0%
Seattle
-6.7%
Boston
-6.0%
Charlotte
-4.8%
Miami
-4.7%
Las Vegas
-4.4%
Cleveland
-3.8%
New York
-3.0%
Dallas
-2.8%
Denver
-2.3%
Los Angeles
-1.8%
San Francisco
-1.7%
San Diego
0.1%
Washington
3.6%

David Blitzer, who runs the survey, said the second recession may be at hand. “The housing market recession is not yet over, and none of the statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery. At most, we have seen all statistics bounce along their troughs; at worst, the feared double-dip recession may be materializing,” he said.