Back in the early 1990s, the Phoenix metro area — like the rest of the country — was suffering through a profound real estate recession and house prices declined for a record 17 straight months. Like Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played, it was thought it would never be equaled.

The fall in housing prices continues, with the latest data from the ASU Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI) showing that in June home values had dropped 22.8 percent compared to June 2007. That makes four months of double-digit declines in year-over-year price comparisons.

The Phoenix metro area housing market is closing on a record. And unlike the Olympics this has more to do with losing than winning. Back in the 1990 to 1991 years, during the last serious real estate recession that roiled Arizona, house prices on a 12-month basis declined for 17 straight months.

The overall price decline for the Phoenix metro housing market took a dramatic, 18 percent leap downward in April, which was unsettling since March numbers were already very weak.

There's trouble in paradise — housing troubles to be exact. In March, for the first time ever, home prices in the overall Phoenix metro area declined by double digits.

Arizona's most severe real estate downturn began in the late 1980s and stretched deeply into the next decade. At the abyss, home prices in the state had declined (on a repeat-sale basis) for a record 17 straight months.

The start of 2008 in the Phoenix metropolitan area was not much different from the end of 2007, as housing prices continue to decline.

A geographic mapping of subprime and Alt-A loans in the Phoenix metropolitan area has revealed some unexpected results: these risky mortgages are not scattered, but cluster in certain cities and neighborhoods.

In Part 5 of our series on the subprime market, real estate finance Professor Anthony Sanders, Jeffrey Coles, chairman of the finance department at the W. P. Carey School of Business and Steven Davidson, vice president, capital market research, Securities Industry and Financial Markets

In Part 4 of our series on the subprime market, real estate finance Professor Anthony Sanders, Jeffrey Coles, chairman of the finance department at the W. P. Carey School of Business and Steven Davidson, vice president, capital market research, for the Securities Industry and Financial