Home values decline 14.2% year over year

May 7, 12:35 PMReal Estate Marketing ExaminerSpencer Rascoff

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Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the housing front continues to slide as U.S. home values are down for the ninth consecutive quarter, declining 14.2 percent from a year ago, according to the latest Zillow.com Q1 Real Estate Market Reports.

To add insult to injury, one-fifth (21.9%) of all homeowners in the United States is in negative equity, and one in five homes sold in the past 12 months was a foreclosure.

Certainly not good news, but there are glimmers of hope. For example, a few markets are showing tentative signs of improvement.  California markets such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Modesto and Merced – all which went into decline much earlier than anyone else and sustained large declines – are now experiencing two or more consecutive quarters of smaller year-over-year declines in home values than in the previous quarter.As I said, it's a glimmer.

I appeared on CNBC earlier this week and talked about this, plus something a lot of people don't think about, which is "shadow inventory." Unfortunately, there is a massive shadow inventory.  These are people who wanted to sell in the past couple of years, but are just waiting in the wings once the market shows any sign of improvement.