Real estate prices slid in just about every part of the country in December, pushing a housing market that once seemed to be rebounding nearly back to its lowest level since the crash began, according to an article by David Streitfeld in today's edition of The New York Times.

"Some economists and analysts," the article said, "say that the damage has been done, and there is nowhere to go but up. Many others argue that the market has still not finished falling. And then there are those who maintain that, possibly, things are about to get a whole lot worse. Robert J. Shiller, the Yale economist who is the author of 'Irrational Exuberance' and who helped develop the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, put himself in this last group."

The article said that "Mr. Shiller said in a conference call on Tuesday that he saw 'a substantial risk' of the market falling another 15, 20 or even 25 percent.

"The 20-city Case-Shiller composite," the article continued, "is already off 31.2 percent from its peak, according to data released Tuesday. Average home prices in Atlanta, Cleveland, Las Vegas and Detroit are below the levels of 11 years ago. A drop the size that Mr. Shiller says he thinks could happen would put Chicago, Dallas, Charlotte and Minneapolis there, too. It would create a lost decade for housing in much of the country even before the effects of inflation."

The article said that "Mr. Shiller said several political trends indicated a dreary future, including the uncertainty over the mortgage holding companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and proposals to reduce the mortgage tax deduction."

It noted, however, that "Mr. Shiller's colleague, the economist Karl E. Case, a professor emeritus of economics at Wellesley College, says he does not think the outlook is so dire" and "said in the conference call on Tuesday that he thought the housing market was at 'a rocky bottom with a down trend.'"

The S.& P./Case-Shiller index of 20 large metropolitan areas fell 1 percent in December from November, although the drop was just 0.4 percent when the data was adjusted for seasonal variations. Eleven cities in the index posted their lowest levels in December since home price peaks in 2006 and 2007, up from nine cities in November. Phoenix and New York joined a list that includes Atlanta, Chicago and Seattle.

The article said that the adjusted declines in December and November were about half the drops in the previous two months, indicating the slide might be slowing.

Also released yesterday was the Case-Shiller quarterly index that covers all homes in the country and it indicated that prices fell 3.9 percent in the fourth quarter and 4.1 percent for all of 2010.

The Case-Shiller index is a three-month moving average, which means it changes slowly. It is now less than 3 percent above the low recorded in the spring of 2009, when there was widespread hope that the market was starting to recover.

"Every place is pretty much getting hit a second time for essentially the same reasons," said Andrew LePage, an analyst with DataQuick Information Systems, the article said, adding that he said that "Slow economic recovery, little job growth, still-tight credit, no more government stimulus, a pervasive and gnawing sense that prices could fall more, too few people getting jobs and too many worrying about losing the one they have."

The National Association of Realtors reported that its data shows the median existing single-family home price rose in 78 out of 152 metropolitan statistical areas in the fourth quarter of 2010 from the fourth quarter of 2009, including 10 with double-digit increases.

However, the article added, "CoreLogic, a data company, said last week that it estimated 2010 home sales at 3.6 million, much less than the 4.9 million the National Association of Realtors was claiming. If accurate, the CoreLogic numbers would indicate a market even more troubled than is generally assumed."