Real estate agents say home-price tide has turned, sellers are capitulating

The Chicago Tribune reports:

How low can they go?

More than a year after housing prices began to consistently fall in the Chicago area, it's still the unanswered question on the minds of home buyers, sellers, real estate agents and economists, as one report after another confirm a residential real estate market in dire shape.

There's no magic answer, but the general consensus is that the declines aren't over yet. On Tuesday, a key index showed that Chicago-area home values in November posted the biggest one-month decline on record. The latest drop in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index has all but wiped out the local market's gains and returned prices to May 2004 levels.

The news came on the heels of a separate report Monday from the Illinois Association of Realtors that showed the median price of a Chicago-area home in December was down 17.3 percent from the same month in 2007.

An article well worth your time.