San Francisco -- Median Home Price: $402,000, down 42.7 percent. The Bay Area managed to stave off the housing crisis a bit longer than the rest of California, but by the middle of 2008, home prices there, too, started to fall and then just plummeted. And they haven't stopped yet.
Las Vegas -- Median Home Price: $155,300, down 37.3 percent. Like Phoenix, Sin City saw explosive growth, with new suburbs popping up all over the desert. In the end, that growth was not sustainable. Las Vegas got a double shot of reality thanks to high gas prices, which kept tourists away -- you basically have to fly or drive there -- followed by the recession that kept away gamblers at home.
Seattle -- Median Home Price: $315,200, down 15.3 percent. While the rest of the country was suffering, home prices in Seattle still were rising. As late as mid-2008, the price of homes there were climbing. That now has stopped. The pain has not been as bad as in Arizona, but it's not pretty either.
Miami -- Median Home Price: $206,000, down 35.4 percent. If California was the poster child for the housing meltdown, Florida was its East Coast sibling. Investors, speculators and foreign buyers had flooded the market. Many people bought second homes there as an investment, maybe thinking about retiring there one day. Subprime and no-document loans flourished. Florida still is paying the price.
Atlanta -- Median Home Price: $115,600, down 24.9 percent. A combination of suburban sprawl and mortgage fraud led to some very big and very early drops for Atlanta. But these days, the city is showing strong signs of hitting a bottom. The average price of metro Atlanta homes dropped just 0.42 percent from March to April. It's not an increase, but when you've lost a quarter of your home's value, it is surely happy news.
