The real estate market is far from a total recovery. The recent figures on the Phoenix area home prices prove that: both commercial and residential real estate have been seeing a decline in prices. And the decline seems to be a consistent trend.

Though economists still consider the Phoenix area real estate market as stable, the downward trend in prices sure is alarming. For the first time in months, Valley home prices are in the negative. Commercial real estate prices are also consistently 30% lower than what they were a year ago.

The Arizona State University released reports last Wednesday showing a 2% drop from August 2009 to August 2010 Repeat Sales Index. The index, which measures the annual changes in average Phoenix-area home prices, has shown no change in July and slight increases from April to June. Since March of this year, the index has not been in the negative.

“This is the first overall decline since March, but it is consistent with the small ups and downs associated with relatively stable housing prices. The ASU-RSI has been relatively stable for more than a year, which suggests that changes in house prices will be moderate going forward unless there are dramatic changes in the Phoenix economy or housing market,” says report author Karl Guntermann, the Fred E. Taylor Professor of Real Estate at ASU.

The preliminary median price for August sat at $122,000. This was a decline from the $125,000 to $135,000 range, which was the median price range for almost one year now.

Even the townhouse/condo median price saw a drop. From July’s $77,000, the median price fell to 465,000 in August. The decline is seen as a continuation of a trend from June.

Even the commercial side is not faring well. The index for the commercial real estate market dramatically declined by the end of 2008 and sped up throughout last year. By the end of 2009, the annual decline sat at 40% - this year’s commercial prices have consistently been 30% lower than the same quarters in 2009.

All hope is not lost, though. Signs of stability are now more apparent than the worsening declines in commercial real estate.