Spanish house prices decline for 14th consecutive quarter
Glut of unsold homes and high employment contributes to 7.4-percent fall
Spanish house prices fell an annual 7.4 percent in the period July-September, marking the 14th quarter of uninterrupted declines as the market remained weighed down by a glut of unsold new homes and high unemployment.
The National Statistics Institute said Thursday that prices decreased 2.8 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months. The average price of existing homes dropped an annual 9.6 percent, while new homes fell 5.0 percent.
Housing has lost about a quarter of its value since a decade-long boom turned to bust around the start of 2008. A study by Fitch Ratings estimates that the value of repossessed homes held by banks are on average 43 percent below the valuations assigned to them in mortgages.
