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US home prices to bottom out this year

10 February 2009 10:13 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA-Economics. The freefall in US housing prices that sparked a global economic crisis will ease by the end of 2009 but not before another leg down, resulting in a 36 percent slide, a study said Monday.
The report by Moodyâ€™s Economy.com said home prices in the 381 US metropolitan areas have already dropped an average of 25 percent, and will slide a further 11 percent before stabilizing, AFP reports.
The study predicts that by the time the market correction is complete, it will have led to double-digit declines in 62 percent of the US metropolitan areas.
The overall economy may take even more time to recover, the report said.
But the report authors said that even if the recession ends late this year, as expected, the subsequent recovery looks to be lackluster. Growth is not expected to return to its pre-recession peak until late 2010, and the nation will not approach a full-employment jobless rate of 5.0 percent before President Barack Obamaâ€™s term nears its conclusion in 2012.