According to a real estate valuation service, Zillow. com, the ongoing recession, foreclosures and constricted lending standards played their part in bringing about a $202 billion loss in value of Bay Area homes in 2008. The loss figure indicates the equity lost in all homes in the nine counties, as real estate values nose-dived.

The 18.3 percent drop in the home values for the area during the fourth quarter, compared to the previous year, was a more comprehensive drop than the 11.6 percent overall US drop - and the median value of homes in the Bay Area reached $503,397.

The median value figure given by Zillow is different form the monthly median sales price in the sense that it calculates the change in value for every single home, and not merely those that were sold off.

Commenting on the fall in home values in the Bay Area, Stan Humphries, Zillow vice president of data and analytics in Seattle, said: "The Bay Area is definitely in the pack of metropolitan areas that are declining worse than the national average. Those areas are our usual suspects - metro areas in California, Florida, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Detroit."

The main reason for a plunge in the home values, in all these areas, is the obsession for boom-time speculation that brought about a superficial build-up of home prices, which are now shrinking amid recession.