An Altos Reseatch shows that next year housing prices will likely drop 5 to 10 percent nationally — finally hitting a trough, according to a webcast by real estate data company Altos Research.

“Prices are going to go down a little bit more, and if there’s nothing but bad news out there, (which is) what we’re seeing, then that must mean that at some point we are hitting the trough, and we feel that 2011 is finally going to be that point,” said Scott Sambucci, the company’s vice president of data analytics.

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“That doesn’t mean that we’re instantly going to bounce out of the trough. Expect local price volatility,” he added.

Early 2011 will bring the usual seasonal bounce in prices, Sambucci said, though the “bounce” will be more of a “shelf,” more akin to this year’s period of price stabilization before the expiration of the homebuyer tax credits than the steady climb in the spring of 2009. Read the rest of this entry »