Four years of home gains have been wiped out

clipped from www.marketwatch.com Home prices in 20 major U.S. cities have dropped a record 15.3% in the past year and are now back to where they were in 2004, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's. Prices in the 20 cities are now down 17.8% from the peak two years ago. The biggest declines were seen in Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix, with prices falling by 25% or more in the past year. Prices in 10 cities have fallen by more than 10%. Prices were lower in April than they were a year earlier in all 20 cities tracked by the Case-Shiller index. Home prices in Charlotte, N.C., which was the last holdout, have now slipped 0.1% in the past year. Home prices surged in 2003 through 2006, climbing by a cumulative 52%. Since then, however, the housing and credit bubble has burst and home owners have given up half of their gains from earlier in the decade.