Home Purchase Prices Fall At Record Pace; Refis Tell Another Story 

U.S. home prices fell in the first quarter of 2008 — and at a record pace, too, if you look only at purchases and exclude refinancing activity. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise and Oversight said Thursday morning that its seasonally-adjusted first quarter index for purchases dropped 1.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007, the steepest quarterly decline in the purchase-only index’s 17-year history. Annually, purchase prices have fallen 3.1 percent between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008, OFHEO said — also the largest annual price decline on record.