In Minnesota, housing prices may have hit bottom

Maybe it’s time to declare that the collapse of housing prices has hit bottom in the Twin Cities.

The Case-Shiller index, which measures the resale value of homes, reports today that the home prices in the Minneapolis market dropped only .8 percent in January. A drop isn’t the best news, but a year ago, prices dropped more than 3 percent in January and home prices in the market are still above where they were last May, which seems to be the low-water mark.

It was, however, the fifth straight month of decline in Minneapolis and prices are still 1.8% less than a year ago.

The region spent last year at the bottom of city rankings. Now it’s solidly in the middle.

David Blitzer of Standard & Poor’s, which conducts the survey, called the numbers “disappointing” because only three cities improved. “The economic news in the last few months has shown a lot of improvement; the housing news has been more mixed,” he told CNBC.

Blitzer said the roughest housing price drops have been among lower-priced homes and the strength has been in higher-priced homes, indicating those who can afford higher-priced homes are doing pretty well.

While we might have reached bottom in Minnesota, the national housing price figures suggest there’s more trouble ahead. January’s value was the lowest it’s been since late 2002.