Report: Los Angeles area homes lose $60.8 billion in value through November

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Homeowners in the Los Angeles area lost $60.8 billion in property value during the first 11 months of the year, more than any other metro region in the country, according to a report out today.

So where is the good news? Well, some might find it encouraging to know the $60.8-billion loss this year pales in comparison with the $345.8-billion loss in home values in the Los Angeles area during all of 2008, according to a report by Zillow.com. The online real estate company valued the Los Angeles area housing stock at $1.7 trillion at the end of November.

In comparison, Chicago area homes lost $49.6 billion through November, New York area homes lost $49 billion and Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes lost $45.9 billion. Who should Angelenos be really jealous of? Boston area homes gained $23.3 billion during the first 11 months of the year, while Providence, R.I., area homes gained $12.4 billion through November, according to Zillow.

Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said that while the Los Angeles area was the biggest loser among the nation’s metro areas, home prices have stabilized in the last six months and the market here appears to be bottoming. Other Sun Belt markets, such as Las Vegas and Phoenix, are still suffering from a glut of homes delivered during the boom years.

“L.A. has had a very strong stabilization in home prices in the past six months, which is very encouraging,” Humphries said. “It’s encouraging because you have a lot of metros that were similarly positioned to L.A. that have not seen that type of stabilization.”

Nationally, home values dropped $489 billion through November, compared with $3.6 trillion in 2008, Zillow said.

-- Alejandro Lazo