Property values in the United States dropped by 8.7% year-on-year in November, less than anticipated, according to the Thai property consultancy Agency for Real Estate Affairs (AREA).

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported recently that the overall US property value at the end of November was 1.8% lower than in October. From April to November the drop was 10.5%.

AREA managing director Sopon Pornchokchai said, however, that property values in Pacific states experienced the greatest drop of 22.1% year-on-year due to high speculation. These states include Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California.

The value dropped around 11.5% in South Atlantic states from Delaware down to Florida and Georgia.

Meanwhile, the value was also stable with only a 1.1% drop in some states such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. The value fell 3.4% in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.

The US had a total of 128 million housing units at an average price of US$250,000 each so its total property value was around $32 trillion or about 1,120 trillion baht.

Dr Sopon noted the aggregate property value in the US was much lower than the derivative market, which was worth around $531 trillion, of which US$60-70 trillion was credit default swaps.

''The property sector has been blamed for causing the crisis though it is much smaller than the financial market. The US lacked efficient financial control measures and this has caused a global problem,'' he said.

source : www.bangkokpost.com