Home prices take biggest dive nationally. Not so bad here.

Survey finds 6.7% falloff in U.S.; 3.2% Chicago-area decline.

With fewer buyers and a bulging supply of newly built houses, residential sale prices fell nationwide in October for the 10th consecutive month, posting the biggest monthly decline since these numbers were first compiled in 1988, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index.

Read the whole article at the Trib.

Even areas that had still been posting modest appreciation are now in decline. And the hardest hit markets are seeing double digit price declines.

Remarkably, your guides have seen an uptick in activity since the second week of December with new listings and even a couple units under contract. With so few homes being sold during 2007, there is absolutely some pent-up demand. Prices may have finally fallen to meet hesitant buyers' expectations. Both units we saw go under contract were aggressively priced units with very realistic sellers.