Spain home price, volume declines continue at rapid rate

Spanish house prices fell 10.1% in June from the same month in 2008, says the surveyor group Tinsa, while the nation's Housing Ministry in summer also reported that prices in the second quarter fell 8.3% year-on-year, accelerating from a revised 6.5% fall in 1Q09.

Tinsa noted the June decline was greater than the 9.8% drop in May and shows that the decline in house prices continues. Since record highs in December 2007, the accumulated decline in home prices has reached 13%. Spain's Mediterranean coast -- which has seen massive building for foreign buyers over the last decade -- was hardest hit, with prices down 12.3%. But this was slightly lower than the slide in May due to seasonal factors. In regional capitals and large cities, prices fell 10.5%, while in metropolitan areas the drop was 9.9%.

The housing ministry said the 2Q09 fall was the fastest since records began in 1995. However, it measured the decline in the quarter alone as slowing to 1.9% from 3% in 1Q09. Separately, Spain's National Statistics Institute reported in summer that the number of houses sold fell 32.2% in May to 34,012 units compared to a year earlier. pfe (Full story to appear in PFE 132)