With U.S. housing prices falling 14.2 percent in the first quarter, more than one in five borrowers find themselves under water, with their debt exceeding the market value of the house, real estate website Zillow.com said May 6.

The first quarter decline is compared with the same period last year, according to Zillow's Real Estate Market Reports, which monitors transactions in 161 metropolitan areas. Since housing prices peaked in 2006, values across the country have dropped 21.8 percent, the report said. The average price for the quarter was $183,378
 
However, for eight regions including Modesto and Stockton, Calif., and Fort Myers, Fla., values have plummeted more than 50 percent.
 
Of all transactions in the past 12 months, 20 percent were foreclosures, and 12 percent were short sales.
 
Zillow's study of Detroit, Warren and Livonia found that housing prices averaged $108,301 for the beginning of 2009, down 18.1 percent compared with the same period last year. Some towns between Detroit and Ann Arbor saw some of the biggest drops. For example, Chelsea’s home values dropped 29 percent, Milan’s, 28.8 percent and Saline’s, 24.5 percent. Some of the communities east of the Metro area saw the smallest declines. New Baltimore values were down 4.3 percent, and Harrison Township’s fell 6.3 percent.
 
The housing trends hit Southeast Michigan years before the rest of the country. The study found that values peaked at an average of $155,591 in the third quarter of 2004. Since then, housing values have dropped 30.4 percent.
 
Nationally, declining home values left 21.9 percent of all American homeowners with negative equity by the end of the first quarter, Zillow said. That’s up from 17.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, and 14.3 percent in the third quarter of last year, the report showed.