Housing Crash Is Hitting Cities Once Thought to Be Stable

The rolling real estate crash that ravaged Florida and the Southwest is delivering a new wave of distress to communities once thought to be immune - economically diversified cities where the boom was relatively restrained, the New York Times reported today. In the last year, home prices in Seattle had a bigger decline than in Las Vegas, while Minneapolis dropped more than Miami, and Atlanta fared worse than Phoenix. The bubble markets, where builders, buyers and banks ran wild, began falling first, economists say, so they are close to the end of the cycle and in some cases on their way back up. Though the overall economy seems to be mending, housing remains stubbornly weak. CoreLogic, a data firm, said last week that American home prices fell 5.5 percent in 2010, back to the recession low of March 2009