DENVER — Home prices in the Denver metropolitan area have decreased by more than 2 percent year over year, according to data from the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Rents in the Denver metro area have also experienced a decline.

Karl Baumgartner, an internal medicine resident in Denver, commented on the trend. "As a renter myself, I am ecstatic about the falling prices," Baumgartner said. He added, "With almost all of my friends being in a similar position at the beginning of our careers with plenty of debt, we are all very excited about the decrease."

Falling home prices can cause homeowners to spend less, a phenomenon economists call the wealth effect. Eric Zwick, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, described a scenario where such conditions could worsen. "That created a kind of cascade of forced sales, further price declines, more people defaulting potentially, and then spillovers into the financial system, which then affected everybody," Zwick said.